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AN 


AIDE-DE-CAMP 
NAPOLEON 


MEMOIRS OF 
GENERAL COUNT DE SEGUR 


OF THE FRENCH: ACADEMY 


1SOO-IS8 12 


REVISED BY HIS GRANDSON 
Counr LOUIS DE SEGUR 


TRANSLATED BY 


H. A. PATCHETT-MARTIN 


NEW. 7: ORK 
Da ARPEE TON AND: COMPANY 


1895 


OF 


Authorized Edition. 


EDITOR'S PREFACE: 


OUNT PHILIPPE DE SEGUR, general 

of division, Peer of France, Academician, 
was born in 1780 and died in 1873. He lived 
for the -steater part. of a century; and cut a 
brilliant figure in war, politics and letters. A 
private in 1800, he became a general in Febru- 
ary, 1812, and fought continuously up to the end 
of the Imperial era. He served through all the 
wars of the Empire on the staff of Napoleon or 
at the head of picked troops. 

With an equal passion for literary and for mili- 
tary glory, he occupied his leisure after the peace 
in writing numerous works, and published in 
1824 his famous narrative of the Campaign in 
Russia, which was talked of all over Europe. His 
most important work entitled /fisfory, Memoirs 
and Miscellanea, in eight volumes, appeared in 1873 
after his death, It comprises the entire history 
of Napoleon, and the author’s personal reminis- 
cences. As the title indicates, the book is in two 
parts: on the one hand we have the principal 


Ir EDITOR’S PREFACE. 


events of that incomparable epoch related and 
appreciated from the high standpoint of an eloquent 
and conscientious writer; on the other, the personal 
memoirs of the General, the account of all he 
had done and experienced. 

It is this intensely attractive and dramatic per- 
sonal record which we publish for the first time 
in a separate form under the title of JZemoirs of 
an Aide-de-Camp of Napoleon J. 

The author first devotes several pages to his 
father, Count de Ségur, a celebrated ambassador 
of the great Catherine, who concluded the first 
treaty between France and Russia, was one of 
the French combatants in the War of Independence 
of the United States, a Councillor of State, and 
Grand Master of the Ceremonies of Napoleon the 
First, Academician, and lastly a Peer of France. 
His name will often crop up in the Memoirs of 
his son. In this introduction the reader will also 
find narrated several events of the life of the great 
grandfather of General Philippe de Ségur, Marshal 
de Ségur, the hero of Laufeld and of Closter- 
camp, War Minister of Louis XVI. during the 
American war, who received numberless wounds 
in the most famous battles of the eighteenth century. 

The writer also recounts the first years of his 
impoverished and proscribed childhood, in the 
midst of the whirlwind of the Revolution. 





INTRODUCTION. 


BEGIN the recollections of my life by speaking 

of my father. Together with a cultivated, lively, 
copious, acute, and profound intellect, he possessed 
an unfailing benevolence, a candid honesty, and 
the gentle gaiety of a happy nature and a pure 
and satisfied conscience. But whatever might 
have been his perspicacity, it was impossible for 
so loyal, so gentle, and so loving a being, preci- 
pitated, as it were, from another world, from the 
court of the great Catherine, where he had been 
Ambassador, into the midst of our Revolution, 
to understand its passions until after he had himself 
suffered from them. The Queen had made him 
the confidant of her wishes, he believed in them, 
he had been deeply moved by her sorrow: she 
had persuaded him that she was open to reason- 
able concessions. 

In the first instance, he endeavoured to make 
use of his ties of friendship and relationship with 


IV INTRODUCTION. 


the heads of the various innovating parties to 
draw them towards this princess. But it was an 
impossible attempt. In their rivalry for popular 
favour not one of these chiefs, carried along or 
outstripped by those around them, could answer 
from one day to another for his own promises 
or his intentions of the day before. It would 
have meant isolation and deposition from all that 
constituted power, entailing on the one hand 
the animadversions of one’s own party, while, on 
the other, there would be no chance of regaining 
the favour of a Court and an aristocracy implacable 
in their imdignant pride and wounded interests. 

The Queen herself, surrounded by distrust and 
conflicting passions, was no longer mistress of her 
own decisions. So that from the very outset, 
although my father had only undertaken these 
conciliatory steps towards the liberal chiefs at the 
desire of this princess, he became the object of 
her mistrust. It was at the same time a sorrowful 
surprise to him to find himself suddenly exposed 
to the malignant rebuffs of those amongst his 
former friends who, hankering after everything 
and anxious to grasp back all, appeared to the 
Queen her most trusty and faithful partisans. 

It nevertheless happened several times that, in 
the midst of this whirlwind of antagonistic passions, 
my father’s reputation for ability, moderation, and 





INTRODUCTION. Vv 


loyalty, dawned on these unfortunate princes as a 
means of salvation. On three special occasions 
amongst others, in their ever-increasing distress 
did they avail themselves of it; first, when they 
chose him for their ambassador to Rome, secondly, 
by offering him the Foreign Office Ministry which 
he was unable to accept, and lastly by appointing 
him their Minister Plenipotentiary at Berlin. 

My father did not even start for Rome; the 
Pope refused to receive him; all union on this 
side had become an impossibility. As for his 
mission to Berlin, I had it from himself that he 
would receive no instructions save from the King 
and Queen exclusively. Unfortunately this precau- 
tion was useless. ‘These instructions were entirely 
of a pacific nature, but whether through dissimula- 
tion on the part of our princes towards their 
Plenipotentiary, or that after his departure they had 
been drawn into another line of policy, the fact was 
that his devotion was turned against himself and 
he was sacrificed to it. After having worn himself 
out in vain efforts, perceiving that he had been 
tricked and calumniated by those whom he was 
endeavouring to help, or rather by their blind 
advisers, he was forced to renounce the attempt 
to avert the peril which he foresaw would soon 
overtake them. 

iiie. * catastrophes * of | Auoust. “Teth) and 


VI INTRODUCTION. 


the September massacres were then imminent. 

At the time when this disastrous epoch had 
actually arrived, disheartened and discouraged by 
the mistrust of the very Government which he 
had vainly endéavoured to succour, he had for 
two months past withdrawn himself seven leagues 
from Paris, and was at Fresnes, in the home of 
his brother-in-law, M. d’Aguesseau, where’ the 
news of the demagogical profanations of June 20 
and the cruelties of August 10 reached him, not 
as a surprise but as an aggravation of his sorrow 
for the misfortunes of the vanquished, and _ his 
horror at the revolutionary excesses. Soon the 
atrocities of September 2 and 3 invaded even the 
retreat where his energies were solely directed 
towards the preservation of his wife and his three 
children from this irruption of barbarians. A band 
of these demagogues were in pursuit of a well- 
to-do farmer of the neighbourhood, suspected of 
royalism, and denounced as a monopolist because 
he was wealthy; these miscreants had caught him, 
and without any kind of trial, were proceeding 
to make an end of him when my father came 
to the rescue, haranguing them with such success 
that in a sudden transformation, these wretches 
passed from a murderous frenzy into a no less 
exaggerated transport of humane enthusiasm. In 
this fresh outbreak they made the unhappy farmer, 


a 


INTRODUCTION. Vil 


still pale, and trembling in every limb, drink and 
dance with them around the tree of liberty from 
whose branches they would pitilessly have strung 
him up only a moment before. 


On his return to Paris during the sinister winter 
of 1792 to 1793, he found installed that Reign of 
Terror, which stained and dishonoured France, 
and disgusted her for so long with liberty. It 
was a Style of government for which our new 
historians who happen to be admirers of Danton, 
should give him the entire credit, as we shall see. 
In fact that political invention which he so 
audaciously boasted of dates specially from 
his Ministry of Justice and the massacres which 
he avowedly organized: here is a proof. 

A few weeks after this massacre of priests, 
women, and inoffensive old men and prisoners, 
my father happened to meet him. Danton accosted 
him and entered into conversation, and my father 
challenged him concerning the horrible events of 
these two days, saying that he failed to see their 
motive or their aim, and that he could not understand 
how he, a Minister of Justice, could neither have 
foreseen, nor at any rate have checked them. 
They were at the time walking side by side: 
Danton stopped short, looked my father straight 
in the face, and with his too well-known cynicism, 


VIII INTRODUCTION. 


replied: “Sir, you forget to whom you are speak- 
ing; you forget that we are the riffraff, that we 
have issued from the gutter; that with your opinions 
we should soon fall back into it, and that we can 
only govern by the law of fear.” 

It may well be believed that after such a declara- 
tion, conversation was cut short and that my 
father hastened to leave a monster who was 
capable of boasting of a system of the most odious 
crimes which have ever sullied the pages of history. 

A few days later my father was arrested on 
two occasions. The first time he was torn from 
the hands of these terrorists by the agency of 
one of those tender friendships which he so 
deservedly inspired; on the second it was his own 
courage alone that saved him. Brought before 
the revolutionary committee of the section for having 
refused to mount guard at the doors of the 
Temple where the King was a prisoner, he nobly 
decided on explaining his invincible repugnance 
in the plainest language to this assembly of igno- 
rant and infuriated men: “Was it for him, a 
former minister of this prince who had often 
showered benefits upon him, to join the ranks of 
his gaolers, and even possibly find himself some 
day in the position of being forced to arrest with 
his own hand the unfortunate monarch whose 
confidence he had once possessed? Were there 








INTRODUCTION. Ix 


not a thousand other posts in which he could 
be useful to public order without exciting the 
deserved mistrust of his fellow-citizens? In any 
other position he would be able to fulfil his duty 
without doing violence to sentiments which the 
consciences of those around him would enable 
them to realize, and which in his place they would 
have felt themselves!” 

Fortunately the courageous frankness of this 
declaration awoke an echo in all hearts. There 
was a general acclamation; the spy who had 
denounced him, perturbed and taken aback, was 
ignominiously expelled, and my father was brought 
home in triumph. 


The Girondins, however, already so far removed 
from their starting point, and guilty withal, were 
ignorant that in a spirit of faction, and through 
fear, they were on the eve of being drawn into 
the commission of the most cowardly and heinous 
of all crimes. 

It was the beginning of January, 1793, and my 
father, in the attempt to save the unfortunate 
Louis XVI., was taking steps which he had no 
reason for supposing would be fruitless. Indeed, 
on the very eve of the fatal judgment, he received 
most reassuring promises from one of the most 
eloquent of the judges. Vergniaud especially went 


x INTRODUCTION. 


so far as to indulge in certain unbosomings of 
conscience. 

“What! he, vote for the death of Louis XVI.! 
It was an insult,” he exclaimed, “to dare to suppose 
him capable of such an unworthy action!” He 
descanted on its awful iniquity, he pointed out 
its uselessness, its danger even, and there is no 
doubt that for the time being this Girondin 
believed himself incapable of it. But only a few 
hours after his disavowal, he found himself under 
the necessity of committing this odious crime, 
owing to fatal engagements with his party and 
the terrible impulsion of a revolutionary tribunal. 
This wretch, after having voted for the death 
sentence, even voted against any reprieve. 

It was impossible for my father to think of 
returning to Fresnes whither his brother-in-law, 
M. d’Aguesseau, had retired. This family gather- 
ing on a large estate would have excited the 
ferocious cupidity of these who levied blackmail 
in places of public resort. Prudence counselled 
dispersion. He therefore bought near Sceaux 
and in the village of Chatenay, at three leagues 
distance from Paris, a little property which became 
our family retreat. It was there that he gave 
shelter to my grandfather, Marshal Ségur, who 
had been denounced and proscribed on account 
of his record of glorious deeds of arms, and ofa 


INTRODUCTION, XI 


seven years’ wise, economical, and beneficent admi- 
nistration at the War Office. — 

Very soon the commissaries of the Committee 
of Public Safety appeared to drag him from our 
arms. But their brutality faltered at the spectacle 
of this old warrior covered with wounds! One 
of them, however, attempted to lay a hand on him; 
but the astonishment of the illustrious veteran, and 
his resolute, cold, and imposing glance arrested 
the ruffian who drew back and maintained a 
respectful demeanour during the remainder of his 
unworthy mission.* He refused, however, to accept 
my father’s self-sacrifice, who offered himself per- 
sistently either to take my grandfather’s place in 
prison, or to share his captivity. 

It lasted six months: he had been incarcerated 


* Eighty years later, in 1871, General Philippe de Ségur, his grandson, 
went through the hardships of the siege of Paris and the Commune. 
Does not the following scene recall to us the moving episode of Chatenay. 

“One day, some delegates of the Commune attired in military uni- 
form made a perquisition in the general’s residence, He preserved such 
a noble demeanour that it inspired them with respect. After a few 
words, the confused and wavering delegates renounced the search. One 
of them, however, as he was leaving, suddenly changed his tone and 
asked the general to give them some money. Upon which the general 
also altered his tone and demeanour, “Leave this place,” he said, 
“you dishonour the uniform you are wearing.” He no longer spoke 
as a resigned victim who braves and intimidates his executioners, he 
spoke like a general to his soldiers.—The miserable creatures went off 
with bowed heads. They had recognised the voice of the master, 
some touch of indignant honour had thrilled within them.” 

5 (SAINT-RENE TAILLANDIER.) 


XII INTRODUCTION. 


in La Force and placed in a dungeon where his 
only bed was a mattress on the ground laid on 
some stinking straw. The unalterable calm and 
constant serenity of his mind preserved his health 
in this cold and wretched prison where he was 
respected and even tended by his fellow captives, 
workmen of the lowest class of the people, for 
there was no distinction of persons among these 
victims. Fortunately the impudence of the Ter- 
rorists stopped short at actually leading to the 
scaffold an old impoverished man who had been 
maimed in his country’s service and on whose 
possessions there was nothing to confiscate. Not- 
withstanding which, the impatience of one of these 
scoundrels, whose cruelty dishonoured his great 
ability, had already fixed the date of execution 
when the revolution of the 9th Thermidor settled 
that of the wretch himself. 

As for us, who had remained at Chatenay in a 
state of consternation, we received the daily list of 
the atrocities of the members of the Convention 
with the names of their victims. Each day 
brought us news of the agony of the sweetest, 
the most beautiful and inoffensive of women, even 
of children and venerable old men: suffice it to 
name the Vintimilles, the Malesherbes and that 
Duchess of Ayen, my mother’s sister, herself a 
mother to the poor, whose death warrant was 


INTRODUCTION. XII 


clamoured for and obtained by Fouquier-Tinville! 

There were our relatives, our connections and 
a thousand others, for there were whole sections 
of suspected persons. 

We were in constant affright. One night at 
the bottom of our garden we heard the drums beat 
to arms in the village. The instinct of danger 
caused us to rush back to the house, and we 
were not mistaken, consternation was depicted on 
every countenance. Two commissaries of the 
Committee of Public Safety had just arrived in 
the commune. They lost no time in seeking my 
father. One was a little fair, insipid weakling; 
the other a great, tall, swarthy scoundrel in car- 
magnole garb, with the red cap on, a long sword 
trailing at his side and a pair of pistols in his 
belt. His mean countenance bore the imprint of 
coarse and violent passions. He began by bru- 
tally telling my father that “he had come to 
arrest him and fling him into one of the Paris 
prisons where he would not remain long enough 
to cot!” - He added thatthe first thing to be 
done was the examination of all papers, a task 
which he left to his colleague, as this worthy 
commissary of the existing government was not 
able to read. 

Luckily it was already late, our grand com- 
missary was hungry, above all thirsty, and was 


XIV INTRODUCTION. 


not such a bad fellow in his cups. So that 
while his colleague was hunting through the drawers 
of every cabinet in the house, we were plying 
our sans-culotte with drink, and as he appeared 
to be yielding to our instances, we at last suc- 
ceeded in mollifying him by representing the 
despair of our poor mother, and persuading him 
that an indisposition from which our father was 
suffering was so serious an illness as to render 
his removal to Paris an impossibility. This man, 
who was better than he appeared to be, or than 
his employers really were, feigned to believe us, 
and even ventured on leaving my father amongst 
us, under arrest, with two peasants to mount 
guard over him and answer for his person. This 
kindly impulse saved us; our commissary justified 
his action in Paris, and my father passed out 
of notice with no further ill-effects during the 
continuance of the Reign of Terror than the ever- 
increasing alarm which the daily reports caused us. 

Later on, when matters returned more or less 
to their normal condition, our protector, the sazs- 
culotte, became our protégé! But neither money 
nor work sufficed for him; he stuck to nothing. It 
became an impossibility to follow him through the 
various vicissitudes of his fortunes, which were 
worthy to be chronicled like Vidocq’s Memoirs. 
I believe, however, that they ended ona house-top 


INTRODUCTION. XV 


where he was wounded while trying to escape 
from a constable whose bullet did him a cruel 
though necessary service. 

The first Terror was followed by a second, on 
18th Fructidor. It was then that Napoleon appeared 
on the scene. As soon as my father discerned 
this bough of laurel in the midst of the shameful 
and terrible shipwreck, he seized it and clung to 
it, and by using every effort, first as a man of 
letters, then as a legislator, finally as a Councillor 
of State, succeeded in attaching the whole of 
France to it. It was he who broke through the 
silence imposed on the Legislative Body by pro- 
posing a ten years’ Consulate. His work in the 
home section of the most learned, the most illus- 
trious of State Councils, past or present, and 
probably future, was immense! In this department 
he co-operated with the whole force of his mind 
and his experience toward the formation of our 
Codes. | 

From that time, proscription being a thing of 
the past, his merits raised him everywhere to 
the highest positions. We witnessed him in 
succession a member of the French Academy 
in the Republic of Letters; Grand Cross of the 
Legion of Honour; Grand Officer of the Crown 
at Court, and finally Senator in the first of our 
political bodies. 


XVI INTRODUCTION. 


After the fatal day of Waterloo, and his devoted 
offer to accompany Napoleon into exile, being 
forced to fall back on his writings as a means 
of livelihood, our youth owed to this last vicis- 
situde the best Ancient History that the University 
of France had ever put into their hands, the history 
of France up to the reign of Charles VIII.; three 
library volumes worthy of a place beside the 
moral works of Plutarch, and his Memoirs, which 
in spite of their success and our earnest wishes, 
his great age, his sufferings, and above all his 
reverence for the sad fate of Louis XVI. and 
Marie Antoinette did not admit of his completing. 

In the midst of these labours his_ excellent 
reputation was the cause of his recall to the 
Chamber of Peers where all parties welcomed 
him, and where he endeavoured to render feasible 
that form of government which Tacitus had indicated 
and believed possible. In July, 1830, his dying 
glance witnessed for the third time the fall from 
the throne of the elder branch of Kings of our 
third race. General La Fayette, his nephew, 
being near to him on his deathbed received his 
last prophetic words which I also heard, and 
which events have only too well justified; but the 
first misguided raptures of this popular Revolution 
were still at their height when my father expired. 

Now for my turn! 


INTRODUCTION. XVII 


II. 


I had been brought up at home till 1790; 
then in England up to the beginning of 1792; 
on return whence, as I have already related, 
we had to seek an asylum .at Fresnes, where 
the echoes of the saturnalias of June 20th, the 
excesses of August 1oth, and the massacres of 
September, had invaded our solitude. 

We have seen that with the rise of the revo- 
lutionary whirlwind, my father, being forced to 
consider our personal safety, had taken refuge 
at Chatenay, near Sceaux, three leagues from 
Paris, with my grandfather, my mother, and three 
children, of whom I was the youngest. Voltaire, 
it was said, had been brought up there; I remem- 
ber that the Abbé Raynal used to come there to 
see my father. The theories of this historian had 
just been put into action, to his apparent disgust. 
I have heard him regret the exaggerations of his 
philosophic writings; reproaching himself for having 
fed the flames of this horrible bonfire by placing 
torches instead of lanterns in brutal hands which 
only made use of them to consume and destroy 
everything! This eloquent octogenarian voice 
pleased my childish ears; I was then unaware 
that three years previously the same voice had 


XVIUI INTRODUCTION. 


acclaimed and encouraged the young artillery 
officer who was destined to become our Emperor; 
but who could have predicted that I myself, twenty 
years later, after having devoted fourteen of the 
best years of my life to the service of this great 
man, should perhaps leave on record to posterity 
some of the features of his history. 

I was twelve years old; the Reign of Terror was 
beginning; we were poor and proscribed; everyone 
had abandoned us, including masters and tutors, 
and my father remained our sole teacher: It was 
too much for me; there was too great a dispro- 
portion between the pupil and the master. At 
this early age which is that of new sensations, 
and in the midst of tragic scenes surrounding my 
weak and sickly existence, my heart alone had 
singularly and precociously developed itself at the 
expense above all of my mind, which had remained 
in its first infancy. The emotions which are often 
secretive at this age were with me acute, profound 
and tenacious; but my intellect distinguished or 
understood little, and worked mechanically. | 
neither grew in body nor in mind. So that instead 
of being a source of consolation, I only added to the 
troubles of my family up to the age of seventeen. 

At this epoch, which was that of the Director- 
ate, some remains of the brilliant world of the 
18th century had survived. Many men of talent, 


INTRODUCTION. XIX 


of letters, and of pleasure, had devoted themselves to 
these relics of the most charming society of modern 
times, Saved from the shipwreck, they tried to 
console each other by bringing into this new 
world, in the midst of the still sanguinary ruins 
of the old one, the manners of other days, the 
love of pleasure adorned by a gallant or romantic 
sentimentality, that of a light and graceful literature, 
above all of a mordant and mocking conversation, 
that puerile weapon of ridicule, the only one that 
remained to serve our hate against the revolu- 
tionary giant. With it we made a mad onslaught 
against the axe hanging over our heads and still 
dripping with our blood, against the scandalous good 
fortune of boorish parvenus, even against the glory of 
its armies, then victorious over the whole of Europe! 

In this society, my uncle, the Viscount de Ségur, 
was one of the men most noted by the light 
graces of his mind. It was he who had initiated 
me into it. My father was of it, but only by 
one side of his nature—that of a man of the 
world and a man of letters; the other side, that of 
a statesman, a publicist and historian, bound him to 
political society. Both of them lived by their pen. 

As for me, suddenly transplanted into the seduc- 
tions of the amiable and joyous world in which 
my uncle reigned, I was dazzled by it, I was 
seized with the ambition of sustaining the reputa- 


XX INTRODUCTION. 


tion of wit, of courage, and of gallantry of my 
family. This ambition took possession of all my 
adolescent faculties: I could see nothing beyond. 
So that, when at the age of seventeen I was 
quoted on account of some songs, a duel, and 
other society successes, I fancied myself to be a 
complete man of the world, having done all that 
could be expected of my age and my capacity. 
My education had not been subjected to any 
method. Accustomed never to begin anything 
at the beginning, in the same way that I wanted 
to write books before I had read enough of them, 
and to be a philosopher before having left the 
sixth class, I formed my own political opinions 
on hearsay; I followed the lead of example and 
sentiment. I shared the hatred by which I was 
surrounded for a revolution which had ruined and 
desolated us, and which would even still proscribe 
us! There was nothing in this but what was 
natural, all the more so that it was not the more 
thoughtful opinion of my father, and _ that 
there is often a spirit of contradiction between 
the pupil and the master. From that time, without 
examination and confusing all in my indiscriminating 
aversion, I refused to accept anything from the pres- 
ent time, I clung blindly to the past, childishly dis- 
playing in the streets the black collar of the Vendeans, 
and calling the hero of Italy Monsieur Bonaparte. 


INTRODUCTION. XXI 


However, considering all things, good and bad, 
I was better than the vain and sterile reputation 
which was the object of my ambition. It was 
a favourable symptom of my youth that I sought 
and liked the conversation of serious men older 
than myself, attaching much value to their esteem. 

As to women, I addressed myself to those 
whose qualities of heart and mind were the 
most exacting. However distinguished they might 
be, my imagination placed them still higher! 
I religiously worshipped in them the type of 
ideal perfection which I had created for myself, 
and it was in spite of the strict conditions 
which this type imposed, that I endeavoured to 
please them. I applied myself to the task 
without respite, without relief, taking everything 
seriously ; my mind and heart always on the strain ; 
playing the lover fervently, laboriously committing 
many follies, and fancying that my whole future 
lay in the most ephemeral of successes. 

This exclusive circle, beyond whose limits I 
seldom passed, was not altogether useless to me. 
It was dominated by delicate taste, noble and 
polished manners, benevolence, and the most 
exalted sentiments; by these alone could one hope 
to please. Everyone spoke in turn, there was 
very little scandal, no chatter upon dress or do- 
mestic economy, one had to contribute an opi- 


*XIT INTRODUCTION. 


nion on the news, the plays and the books of 
the day, on the actions and sentiments of the hero 
of whatever literary work happened to be in vogue. 
These judgments were controverted neither in 
haste nor with pedantry, but more or less devel- 
oped according to their relation with the condition 
of heart or mind mutually existing between the 
interlocutors. In short, I was living in the very 
midst of one of the most select sets of this cele- 
brated society, which the man of the world and 
the man of letters of a former day frequented 
by way of completing himself. 

Too prematurely launched into this career, and 
proscribed from any other, and at the age of 
eighteen being incapable of producing anything 
beyond light verse and vaudevilles, its drawback 
was its futility; from this my disposition saved 
me, but at my own expense. We have seen that 
by nature and education I was of a serious turn 
of mind; I therefore rhymed without a vocation, 
laboriously, expending in the polishing of my 
couplets the few resources of my mind, and suc- 
ceeding but poorly. The remembrance of the 
distaste with which I regarded my sterile vein, 
that of the exnuz, which I experienced above all 
in summer, lounging in Paris, then empty of my 
set, wandering without aim or money, badly 
dressed and worse fed, this remembrance of want 


INTRODUCTION, XXIII 


of occupation, of privations, of discontent with 
myself and my wasted time, long remained in my 
memory as an unbearable weight. 

The second Terror, that of the 18th Fructidor 
was then rampant. Prudence as well as poverty kept 
me at Chatenay where at least I found the neces- 
saries of life. There, in a neglected but still elegant 
abode, in the midst of a well-filled and well-selected 
library, with no society but my own, my enfranchized 
imagination took fresh flight, and a thousand 
ambitious dreams in this isolation where nothing 
disturbed them, carried me out of the real world 
and transported me into that of illusions. Then 
with a stick in one hand and a bundle in the other, 
I took the road or rather the by-way towards 
the capital; for it was always across the fields, 
or in the direction of Fontenay-aux-Roses or of 
Chatillon that I wended my steps, carefully avoid- 
ing the high road, habitations, passers-by, and all 
that might interrupt the charm of my solitary reveries. 

Oh! how relieved I felt when no longer dreading 
a chance meeting, an interchange of greetings or 
even a glance, I had passed the last house in our 
village! With what a transport of joy I at once 
let loose the reins of my wild imagination! With 
what promptitude it carried me off into the world 
of enchantments, and how in this two hours’ jour- 
ney, it bore me on from one glorious success to 


XXIV INTRODUCTION. 


another to the very summit of the most brilliant 
and diverse careers! I can still look back on 
those moments as amongst the most fortunate of 
my existence! The illusion was at times so 
complete that I no longer knew I was on the 
tramp, cold or heat, fatigue or poverty, were all 
alike forgotten. But when the hero of so many 
enchanting adventures arrived unexpectedly at the 
real end of his journey, the frontier of Maine was 
the fatal landmark where so many ravishing illusions 
suddenly jostled each other, were shattered to 
atoms, and fell to dust. Then, alas! brought face 
to face with sad reality, the irresistible Alcibiades, 
the millionaire Croesus, the Olympian winner 
precipitated from his triumphal car, found him- 
self on foot, bathed in perspiration, and covered 
with mud or dust! Everything then became an 
obstacle to be avoided, a brutal waggoner perchance, 
or ‘a suspicious official, Lucky: if he could 
profit by some assemblage in which he might 
pass unperceived, to slink away as a suspect, 
and escape the ever risky necessity for an ex-noble 
of exhibiting his passport. 

On my return home, the downfall would become 
absolute and complete. To the transitory, tender 
joy of these fleeting moments succeeded the 
discouraging question: 

“What is to become of you?” 


CON GENES: 


CHAPTER 


I.—My VOCATION . : ‘ : ‘ : 5 4 
II.—My DEBUT 2 3 i * A : 
III.—My First CALL TO ARMS. 5 - 5 5 


IV.—HOHENLINDEN . : = E : c S 
V.—THE CAMPAIGN OF THE GRISONS . 
VI.—I RALLY TO THE REVOLUTION 
VII.—I AccoMPANY MACDONALD ON HIS EMBASSY TO DEN- 
MARK 
VIII.—I AM ENTRUSTED WITH A MISSION TO THE KING OF 
SPAIN . 5 3 a : : 6 é 5 6 
IX.—I AM NOMINATED ORDERLY OFFICER TO THE FIRST 
CONSUL é 5 
X.—TuHE EXECUTION OF THE Duc D’ENGHIEN 
XI.—THE CAMP AT BOULOGNE 
XII.—THE CONSECRATION 
XIII. PREPARATIONS AGAINST ENGLAND . 
XIV.—THE PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN OF AUSTERLITZ 
XV.—THE GRAND ARMY ENTERS GERMANY . 
XVI.—UIM. 
XVII.—VIENNA 
XVIIT.—AUSTERLITZ 
XIX.—THE SIEGE OF GAETA 


XX.—JENA : . : : : 
XXI.—BERLIN . ; a 3 F : 5 
XXII.—I AM TAKEN PRISONER . ‘ 5 F é F 4 


PAGE 


49 


61 


77 
88 


129 
136 
143 . 
I5t 
157 
166 
208 
229 
265 
273 
298 
315 


XXVI CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 
XXIII.—IN CAPTIVITY. - F ; 5 . ; 


XXIV.—My RETURN . ‘ : : F 5 Cc 
XXV.—IN SPAIN. ; : é . 6 3 ; 
XXVI.—SOMMO-SIERRA. I AM WOUNDED 


XXVII.—I PRESENT THE STANDARDS TO THE LEGISLATIVE AS- 


SEMBLY . . . . . 


XXVIII.—INTRIGUES AT PARIS: FOUCHE AND BERNADOTTE 
XXIX.—NAPOLEON AT M. DE CHATEAUBRIAND'S RECEPTION 


INTO THE ACADEMY . ; 6 ; A 


MEMOIRS 


OF AN 


AIDE-DE-CAMP OF THE EMPEROR 
NAPOLEON I. 


CHAPTER: © 
MY VOCATION. 


WAS nineteen years old, but it seemed that I was 

not fit for anything, not even to be a clerk in an 
office, for my writing was too bad. 

Yet that was my last resource. Time pressed, and 
it was humiliating to remain a burden on my family. 
I was on the point of resigning myself to my fate; 
already I was sadly striving to become a very poor 
copyist when a last journey brought me back to Paris. 
Directly I had passed the suburbs I noticed that day 
a singular emotion on the countenances and in the 
attitude of all the persons I met, which inspired me 
with a vague hope. 

Revolution was then following revolution; I foresaw 
one coming. In my destitute state, and in the midst 
of the ever-increasing proscriptions, any change could 
but be a change for the better, as far as I was con- 
cerned. Disenchanted of my dreams and thrust back 
by my misfortunes into the world of reality, I for 


the first time felt one of the great public. Curiosity 
3 


2 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


and even a keen interest led me on, drawing me out 
of my own way, regardless of any risk to myself. 
Not being able to be an actor in this new agitation, 
I at any rate wished to be a witness of it. I knew 
nothing; I did not dare to ask anyone, but was led 
on by a powerful instinct, which guided me straight 
towards him whose destiny was soon to control my own. 

It was the very moment when Napoleon at the 
Tuileries, elected by the Council of Ancients, was 
commencing the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, and 
haranguing the garrison of Paris to make sure of it 
against the Directory and the other Council. 

I was stopped by the garden railings. I leant up 
against them and gazed eagerly upon this memorable 
scene. Then I ran around the enclosure trying all 
the entrances; at last, when I had reached the gate 
of the draw-bridge, I saw it open. A regiment of 
dragoons came out, it was the 6th; these dragoons 
were marching on towards St.-Cloud with their cloaks 
rolled around them, their helmets on their heads, sword 
in hand, with that warlike exaltation, that proud 
determined air which soldiers wear when they approach 
the enemy, resolved to conquer or perish! At this 
martial apparition, the warlike blood, which I had 
inherited from my forefathers, coursed madly through 
my veins. J had found my vocation; from that moment 
I was a soldier, I only dreamt of combats, and disdained 
any other career. 

Nevertheless, however carried away I might have 
been, thoughtful, dreamy, and melancholy by nature, 
I reflected on my own enthusiasm, carefully keeping 
to myself a resolution so opposed to the whole of my 
preceding life. Hitherto, in the exclusively aristocratic 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 3 


and anti-revolutionary society which I had frequented, 
my words and feelings had been full of horror and 
disgust for all that appertained to the revolution; I 
proscribed it as it proscribed me; I did not except 
the army itself from this blind aversion. 

I held such a false and sorry opinion of its com- 
position that I remember in a duel, two years previously, 
with young Verdiére, son and aide-de-camp of the 
General-Commandant of Paris, whilst waiting for 
weapons, I had not chosen either to give my name, or 
to sit down at night on the parapet of the Quay Vol- 
taire beside one of his seconds, for fear that officer 
should treacherously throw me into the river! I was, 
however, so little suspicious by nature, that when the 
quarrel had broken out a minute before in the Vaude- 
ville Theatre, when it had been a question of choosing 
seconds, I, alone against three, had asked one of these 
gentlemen to act as mine. I was ignorant at the time 
that they were officers, but as soon as I knew it I 
distrusted them. 

However, these worthy young men, who were older 
than myself, insisted that all should be in regular form; 
they even had sufficient confidence and patience to wait 
in the Champs Elysées, while I went to seek a second 
among my acquaintances. The meeting took place in 
the Avenue Marigny, by the light of a gas-lamp, 
which, before the revolution, my uncle, the Viscount 
de Ségur, happened to have erected on that spot. It 
was only after having narrowly escaped killing my 
adversary, and being twice slightly wounded myself, 
that our duel, which had been interrupted by officers 
of the police, came to an honorable conclusion. Not- 
withstanding which, this proof of the loyalty of these 


4 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


military men did not alter my state of feeling. I even 
congratulated myself on having concealed my name 
and that of my second, having insisted that I should 
be allowed to go and fetch him by myself, so as not 
to expose his household to some infamous denunciation. 

This odious prejudice will show the pronounced tone 
of my mind. How, then, could I possibly follow the 
vocation for which I felt this sudden call? How could I 
conciliate this love of arms with this aversion for the army, 
this passion for glory with the hatred for the sole flag 
under which it could be won? But the sight of this 
regiment on the march had transformed me from a 
young dreamer into a man of action, without separating 
the two in my personality. The first smoothed for me 
the entrance into the world of reality by adorning it 
with illusions. My imagination, fertile in projects, im- 
mediately conceived the idea of implanting my own 
royalism in this thoroughly republican army. I even 
ventured to think that I might lead a good number 
of my fellows to imitate my example; that this germ 
of an anti-revolutionary army might take root; and 
that as one revolution had hitherto trodden’ on 
the heels of another, judging of the future by the past, 
I imagined another might soon take place by 
which our party might profit. This idea, wild though 
it might appear, did, however, bring forth something; 
that is why I speak of it, because I soon gained prose- 
lytes for its execution. This was some months later, 
in .Switzerland, when I had already gained my step as 
an officer; conspiracies were then in the wind, they 
cropped up on all sides; ours, indeed, was almost a 
conspiracy, but set on foot by a pack of thoughtless 
young men, whose dream, when discovered, was 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 5 


treated with contempt, which was quite right; it only 
left us the poorer by our expenditure of money and 
ideas, to which we resigned ourselves. 

It may seem almost ludicrous, that having entered 
the army in the hope of persuading it to embrace 
royalism, it, on the contrary, drew us into its cause; 
and having left Paris warm royalists in 1800, we 
were almost as warm republicans when we returned 
to it in 1801. This new transformation was due to 
fraternity of arms and an appreciation of the true state 
of things on the one hand, and, on the other, to the 
rebuffs which we experienced at the hands of our 
former set. A year sufficed to bring it about. But I 
will return to the order of events which will explain 
this inconsistency. 

I had imagined that the day of my public enrolment 
would be that of my departure, that at least the ex- 
plosion which I dreaded would take place when I had 
gone, so that I should not hear it; but it happened 
quite differently. The appeal, rather perhaps political 
than military, to a picked class of young men who should 
provide their own arms and horses and equip them- 
selves, had just appeared. General Dumas, who was 
a friend of my father, was to organize this body; I 
was the first to go to him and at once inscribe my 
name, but under promise of secrecy. It was only 
when I had taken this first decisive step that I confided 
it to my father. He approved of it, which is what I 
had expected. He did more; he was kind enough to 
keep it a secret whilst smiling at my weakness. 

I nevertheless, on the eve of being severely censured, 
felt very uncomfortable in those salons where I was 
still so welcome. It was even worse when I realized 


6 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


that our organization would be set on foot in Parts, 
in the very midst of this dreaded society. From that 
moment my anxiety daily increased; I could not sleep, 
I was in a perfect fever. At last the fatal moment 
arrived when I had to go to the Town-hall publicly 
to sign the act of enlistment. 

It was the 24th Ventdse of the year VIII (February 
1800) when my father took me there, or rather dragged 
me to the Place de Gréve as if to execution, such 
was my dread of the commotion which was sure to 
follow. My return to the Fauburg St. Honoré which 
I, as well as the best people of my own set, inhabited, 
was even worse. The nearer I approached, the greater 
became my anguish, until, at last, feeling on the verge 
of giving way, I grew so terrified and indignant at 
the extent of my own weakness that this fresh shame 
somewhat restored my courage. A reason for thus 
losing it when great resolutions have been taken, arises 
from a natural inclination to see them only on their 
worst side; one forgets the other, the very cause of 
one’s determination, when on the contrary that is the 
moment one should turn entirely towards and hold 
fast to it. My father recalled my wandering wits, one 
of the greatest services he ever rendered me, without 
which I do not really know what would have become of 
my poor head. Anger brought me back to my senses, 
for I was not spared. One of my nearest and best-loved 
relatives was the first to pronounce the word dshonour/ 
The excess of severity set me in revolt; I accepted 
war. I gave back scorn for scorn; I shouted louder 
than my adversaries, even enlisting several of my friends 
in my cause. These young noblemen, less earnest 
than myself, or simply following the natural impulses 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 7 


of their age, successively answered to the same call. 
They were then to be reckoned as of us, and instead 
of attacking us they had to defend themselves. This 
was the beginning of the first amalgamation of the old 
society with the new. Weshould remember it was not 
five months since the one had finally proscribed the 
other. 

However feeble and imperfect this first fusion might 
be, it was not without importance; which fact must 
reflect some importance on the account of it. Doubt- 
less this happy reconciliation would have taken place 
without me, but it was through me that it began. 
That is the reason why Napoleon made me a sub- 
lieutenant on the gth Floréal of the year VIII after I 
had served only a few months as a private of Hussars 
in the volunteers styled “onaparte’s.” 

I had not only bearded my own set, but I had to 
return to my family at Chdtenay to answer for my - 
desperate action to my grandfather, the Maréchal de 
Segur. Arriving in the early morning, I drew near 
to his bed in the most respectful attitude, “ You have 
“been guilty of disrespect,” he said severely, “to all 
“the traditions of your ancestors; but the thing is done; 
“remember that. You have of your own free will 
“enlisted in the Republican Army. Serve it frankly and 
“loyally. You have made your choice, and it is out of 
“your power to go back on it.” 

Then seeing me bathed in tears he was a little 
moved, and with his only remaining hand he took 
mine, and drawing me to him pressed me to his heart; 
then giving me twenty louis which was nearly all 
he possessed, he added: “Here, this will help you to 
“complete your equipment; go forth, and do your best 


8 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


“bravely and faithfully to maintain under the flag which 
“you have chosen, the name which you bear and the 
“honour of your family!” 

Fifty years have passed since then, but I never think 
of this noble and sad farewell, of this manly and touch- 


ing blessing, without being moved to the very depths 
of my being! 


CHAPTER. LL 
MY DEBUT. 


T the beginning of the year 1800, the time when I 

enlisted, our frontiers were on the point of invasion; 

and from the Helder to Genoa, all the efforts of Bona- 

parte had only succeeded in bringing about 150,000 
men to oppose 300,000 of the enemy. 

It was then that, in the midst of numerous cares of 
all kinds, steadily following his aim, which was to 
rally all to his own fortunes, he had made to a 
hitherto proscribed party of the youth of France that 
appeal to which I had been the first to respond. It 
had not been directly addressed to them, it is true; 
but it was evident that his protection was offered to 
them, that it opened the ranks of the army to them; 
and that by calling upon them to equip and mount 
themselves in a select new corps, he offered them in 
return the gratitude of the nation. Nothing had been 
left undone that might draw and appeal to us. Gene- 
ral Dumas, who had been proscribed by the terrors 
of ’93 and of the Directory, had been entrusted with 
our formation. This general dated from Louis XVI. ; 
he was possessed of the pleasant wit, the benevolent 
disposition and the gentle and attractive manners of 


the ancient order. It was the same with the chief 
9 


10 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


who was immediately over us in command, Colonel, 
formerly Count, de Labarbée, a former officer of the 
royal army. 

Some weeks were necessary for the Paris recruit- 
ment of our corps, which was first called Volunteer 
Flussars, then Sonaparte’s Legion, and which only 
numbered two or three squadrons and a strong batta- 
lion. As for our duties, whilst we were waiting to go 
into barracks, they consisted, besides a little sentry 
duty, in writing and carrying out the orders of General 
Dumas and in following him. This last service, insig- 
nificant though it might be, did me a good turn. It 
happened in this wise. 

Our general, having business to transact with the 
Director Carnot, a former member of the Convention, 
at that time Minister of War, happened that day to 
select me for his orderly. Arrived in the court-yard of 
the War Office we dismounted, and my duty was to 
wait there with the horses; but as General Dumas, 
when starting, had ordered me to follow him, fancying 
that I must not leave him, I scrupulously dogged his 
every step in my anxiety to carry out my orders to the - 
letter. In consequence, when he went upstairs I did 
the same; I also followed him through the ante-chamber 
and the reception room step by step, walking imme- 
diately behind him, and even into the Minister’s study. 
Preoccupied with the business which had brought him 
there, and having no cognizance of my blunder, he 
immediately entered into conversation with this per- 
sonage. General Dumas was between the Minister 
and myself, with his back towards me; being taller 
than he, my head rose above his, so that Carnot, 
astonished to see in the inner privacy of his study 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. I] 


a young soldier standing like a post behind his 
interlocutor, was not listening to him at all, and with 
an air of utter astonishment appeared to demand the 
explanation of such an unheard-of proceeding. The 
General, on his side, surprised by the Minister’s recep- 
tion of him, and noticing that he appeared much more 
taken up with something that was going on behind 
him than with the affair that he had come to discuss, 
turned back. On seeing me: “ What the devil are 
you doing here?” he exclaimed. I replied by alleging 
the orders which I had received: then both of them 
burst out laughing, and gave me the first lesson in 
my duty by sending me back to my humble post. 
But as soon as I had gone, this prank of mine natu- 
rally brought about an explanation, in which General 
Dumas expatiated upon my voluntary enlistment, the 
first which had taken place, and on the usefulness of 
the example which I had set. 

My ingenuous action brought about speedy results; I 
had attracted attention; my name was favourably noted, 
and the rank of sub-lieutenant which I obtained on May 
Ist, 1800, was the happy consequence of this adventure. 

Such are the caprices of Fortune. Her first favour 
was bestowed on me for a blunder; a brilliant action 
would perhaps not have done so much for me. I 
certainly have no cause to complain of Fortune; but 
since then how many difficulties and dangers have I 
faced without obtaining as much from her! 

We were soon sent from Paris to Compiegne, then 
to Dijon, the meeting-place of the second army of re- 
serve. Napoleon reviewed us there on his way to 
cross the St. Bernard. From Dijon we went to 
Carrouge, near Geneva, where we were quartered, the 


1 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


victory at Marengo having interrupted our march. 
There I met Madame de Staél at a ball where, in 
remembrance of my father, she was kind enough to 
dance with me, entering at once into a political con- 
versation which she soon abandoned; then, remembering 
my early efforts, she asked me what I had done with 
my pen (flume). Absorbed as I then was in the career 
I had chosen, I pointed to the plume in my shako, 
lightly saying that I had placed it there, and that I did 
not think I should ever feel inclined to use it in any 
other fashion. 

I might even have added that at that moment the 
thing I feared the most was that I might be forced to 
take the quill once more into my fingers and again 
become a man of letters. During our stay in this can- 
tonment, the news of the armistice of Varsdorf and 
the thunder-clap of Marengo came to vex and damp 
our ardour; it seemed as if the war would come to an 
end without us, 


CHAPTER Ii, 
MY FIRST CALL TO ARMS. 


INCE May 6th, the day on which the First Consul 

reviewed us at Dijon and classed us into the second 
army of reserve, we had, as I have said, advanced 
as far as Geneva. There, whilst constantly receiving 
accounts of the glorious deeds which were being ac- 
complished in Italy, we envied the fate of the most 
humble private who could boast that he had taken a 
part in them. We looked upon each one of them as 
a hero. What were we in comparison? When should 
we be able to recount our exploits and cut a figure 
in our turn? These laurels disturbed our rest. After 
sO many wars and so many victories we seemed to 
think that the race had been won, that we had arrived 
too late, and that there would be nothing but leavings 
for us, if any remained! 

We were quartered near Geneva, at Carrouge, when 
on some pleasure excursion or other, we committed the 
unpardonable impertinence of harnessing some of our 
troop horses to a brake. Returning to our quarters at 
night, through a narrow street, we suddenly came upon 
our Colonel! It was impossible to go back. Had we 
either stopped or passed on our way with a salute, our 


lapse of discipline must have been taken note of and 
13 


14 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


met with exemplary punishment, and we were hesitating 
in face of the approaching difficulty when one of us, 
who afterwards became a General, cried out: “Leave 
it to me, we must bewilder him, I take the responsibility 
of it!” And immediately seizing hold of the reins, he 
whipped the horses up to their greatest speed, galloping 
straight towards our chief with such impetuosity that 
there was hardly time for him to lean close up against 
the wall so as not to be run over. “Devil take the 
young fools!” exclaimed the colonel; but every one 
of us, horses and officers, were already out of his reach 
before he had time to recognize us. 

It might be useful to recall a more serious adventure 
of another kind, which will show the danger of making 
rash acquaintances. While passing through Switzerland, 
we had in my company a non-commissioned officer, 
son of a widow who afterwards married a nobleman 
of one of the best old families in France. This cavalry 
sergeant was a man of ready wit, without any morality; 
he always had a string to his bow ready for an emergency, 
without seeming to know that in justice he deserved 
it should be drawn against himself, and this is just 
what would have happened to him, had it not been 
for me, as we shall see. 

From one vice and another he had dropped into crime; 
I knew he was a man of no reputation, but beguiled 
by the charm of his intellect and believing that he had 
abandoned the error of his ways, I had been led into 
much too great intimacy with him. On our arrival at 
Coire, we were quartered in the environs when I was 
warned by a letter from our colonel that a burglary 
and the murder of a jeweller had been planned in 
the very village which we occupied, that this non- 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 15 


commissioned officer was the originator of it, and that 
the police were on their way to seize him. 

On receipt of this news, partly from fear that the 
honour of my company might be stained by a criminal 
sentence upon him, partly from pity for the wretch, I 
made up my mind to warn him, so that he might go 
and get hanged elsewhere, and otherwise than in the 
uniform which I was wearing. I went off at once to 
his lodging, which was on the first floor, in a big room 
furnished with two benches and a long and narrow table. 

The scene which took place there, which was for a 
moment very critical, made a deep impression upon me. 
I found him alone, and immediately, without preamble, 
informed him of the fate with which he was threatened, 
warning him that there was only a moment for escape 
if he meant to avoid it. But dreading a snare, with 
one bound he leapt over the table which he put between 
himself and me, and seizing his pistols, raised the trigger 
and pointed the weapon at me, exclaiming that “I had 
“doubtless come to frighten him, to drag a confession 
“from him, to arrest him. But that if I made the slightest 
“movement he would kill me on the spot!” 

The smile of pity which he saw on my face, and the tone 
of my voice when IL impatiently repeated that he was losing 
his sole chance of escape, must have been very convincing, 
for, transformed all of a sudden, he threw down his 
weapons, came close to me and took my hands, which 
he pressed against his heart, swearing eternal gratitude; 
then putting together a few belongings, he disappeared 
out of sight so completely that,none of us ever heard 
anything about him afterwards, neither did the officers 
of police, whom I found in my rooms when I got back: 
they had only missed him by five minutes. God grant 


16 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


that the dangers he ran may have brought about his 
reformation, without which I should have on my con- 
science all the crimes which, thanks to me, he may 
have committed since that day! 

I myself was at that time denounced and reprimanded 
on account of a very different plot, a result of the 
disorder and the agitation of these revolutionary times. 
I have already described the kind of royalist Utopia. 
by which, after my voluntary enlistment, my conscience, 
tormented by the change of flag under which I served, 
had endeavoured to reconcile the contradiction of my 
aristocratic rancours with the instincts of my warlike 
humour. : 

With this thought ever before me, I had associated 
myself with some comrades in my regiment, mostly 
Vendeans, who were animated by a similar spirit. 
We had initiated a kind of conspiracy whose object 
was to royalize the army. As to the means to be 
employed, the least ridiculous of them consisted in a 
project that the most enterprising amongst us should 
make an offer to the First Consul to levy a volun- 
tary corps of 6000 Vendeans, in which we had already 
assigned our individual positions. We made our ac- 
complice Piré, now a lieutenant-general, leave Lausanne 
for Paris. 

This young Breton who was devoid of scruples, was 
very proud of his brilliant wit, his charming face and 
figure, and of having escaped the massacre of 
Quiberon! He had arrogated to himself the principal 
part in this adventure, and, curiously enough, was at 
first favourably received by Bonaparte; indeed, had it 
not been for audacities of another nature, such as 
offering himself as a candidate for the hand of Made- 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. i, 


moiselle Hortense de Beauharnais, he might have suc- 
ceeded! But he had taken away with him on this 
mission the whole of our money. We had filled his 
purse to the extent of leaving nothing in our own; so 
that, a week after, when we had to dine at Lucerne, 
we spent our last halfpenny in the worst eating-house 
of the whole town. It was not the custom then to 
receive daily pay or rations, so that we started off 
famished the next morning, without the least idea how 
we should get through the long day without bite or 
sup. But Fortune protects us in certain phases of life. 
When we had arrived at our destination and after 
having had our billets allotted to us, we were, not- 
withstanding our difficulty, on the point of dispersing, 
when we were ordered to form in circle around our colonel, 
who announced to us that, acting on orders that moment 
received from headquarters, men and horses henceforth 
should be fed by those on whom they were billeted. 
We all rushed off at once, and if these poor Helvetians 
did not find us difficult to please on the point of quality, 
they must have been rather surprised as to the quantity 
of our demands, and the haste in which we had at 
once availed ourselves of this thrice-welcome order. 
We thus traversed Switzerland by long and short 
stages: it was a fortunate commencement of our travels. 
But the drawback of a too ardent nature is that one 
imagines beforehand everything grander and more 
beautiful than it can possibly be: so that, however 
admirable nature may be in reality, its most remarkable 
phenomena appear inferior to the enchanting visions 
pictured by a too warm and vivid imagination. This 
is an unfortunate disposition which destroys the charm 


of travel. It did not, however, affect me, when, from 
4 


18 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


the summit of the Jura, I suddenly perceived the imposing 
mass of the Alps and that towering Mont Blane whose 
wonders had been so often described to me! But in 
my subsequent travels I can only remember to have 
been astonished by the dome of St. Peter’s at Rome, 
the fine works at Cherbourg and the burning of 
Moscow! 

When, before reaching Coire, we for the first time 
crossed the Rhine not very far from its source, although 
then under the fascination of another influence, the 
narrowness of its stream at this point, the suspension 
of arms which still lasted, and our distance from the 
enemy, did not even moderate my wild enthusiasm at 
the aspect of this famous river; I felt transported with 
martial pride; I crossed it proudly, with my head held 
high and my hand on the hilt of my sword, and when 
on the other side I felt myself another man; it seemed 
to me that I had taken a great stride onwards in my 
heroic career. 

A. little further on we found ourselves at the ex- 
treme limits regulated by the armistice; and I placed 
my vedettes at the foot of the glacier named the Splugen. 
Going up to the source of the Rhine from that point, 
other sensations took possession of me. Beyond Thusis 
a deep gorge brings one to the rather wide but not 
deep bed of a torrent whose transparent waters, flowing 
over a slaty bottom, appear black as those of the 
Styx. This forms the approach to the Via-Mala, a kind 
of gate or entrance to Hell, a gigantic relic of chaos, 
where, for about two leagues, the road runs along by 
an abyss. This road is cut out, partly on one side 
and partly on the other of the two flanks of an immense 
rock separated in half, forming an enormous narrow 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 19 


opening at the bottom of which the compressed waters 
of the Rhine precipitate themselves with fearful clamour. 
Very often the cornice narrows off on account of the 
‘steepness or of some abrupt turn of the rock. It is 
then necessary to cross from one side to the other on 
narrow bridges formed of trunks of pine trees thrown 
across the abyss: worm-eaten, gaping apart, and 
trembling under the horses’ feet, swayed about by the 
leaping torrent which roars as it breaks on its bed of 
rocks. Its course is so impetuous, its bounds so 
-violent, that, notwithstanding the depth of the gulf, 
the water dashes up in a mist which envelops the 
traveller, who is almost deafened by the tumult of 
these cataracts, although they are too deep and almost 
too narrow to be seen. 

It is by this long opening that the village of the 
Splugen is reached. It was late when I arrived at 
this poor hamlet: I should have stopped there if only 
out of curiosity, so as not to lose this opportunity of 
climbing to the top of the Alps. But I was seized 
with an unaccountable disgust; the poverty of the 
inhabitants, the barrenness of this uncultivated country, 
the isolated appearance of these regions almost lost 
in the clouds, several weary days of travel and the 
oppression of these upheaved masses, the very sky 
itself darkened by a coming storm, all conspired to 
repel me. I was wrong, as a traveller, and, above 
all, as an officer of the advance-guard, whose object 
should be to see everything, and carefully reconnoitre 
everything, to consider in their different relations 
every means of entrance and exit, and to acquire 
every possible information concerning the country 
through which he is passing. 


20 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


But I only remained at Splugen long enough to 
place my picket; after which, in spite of the storm, 
the rain, and the gathering darkness, followed by an 
orderly, I took a half turn and re-entered the Via-Mala, - 
in spite of the remonstrances of the inhabitants who 
warned me in vain of my imprudence. I was only 
too well aware of it, after a quarter-of-an-hour’s march, 
when I was quite deafened by the wind, the tumult 
of the storm, and the roaring of the torrent; when, in 
addition to the icy rain falling from the sky which 
one could hardly perceive between the two rocks, the 
lowering clouds which enveloped us, and the thick 
mist which rose up from the depths of the precipice, 
the darkness of night came on and we were forced 
to dismount so as to know where we were going and 
not to fall back into the gulf. We stopped short in 
consternation; it would have been wiser to have 
returned to Splugen, and we hesitated, but vanity and 
a love of sensation prevented me from retracing my 
steps. 

The only thing we could then do was to walk on 
slowly with the bridle over our arms, one hand on 
the rock and the other hand feeling for the ground at 
each step. But words cannot depict the anxiety of 
the moment whenever the road failed us, and we had 
to guess at these bridges thrown across from one rock 
to another, to avoid the crevasses and thus to cross 
the gulf. Every moment we stopped to call out to 
each other, fancying that in the midst of the tumult 
of the torrent and the tempest, we had heard the sound 
of a fall into the abyss! Frequently our hand and 
our feet touched nothing but space. Then, throwing 
ourselves back against the rock, we remained in a 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 21 


state of terror, dreading our next movement, almost 
motionless on the ledge, and nearly determined to 
remain there until day-light should show us the way 
out of this peril, which we had braved without rhyme 
or reason, and which could only have entailed blame 
and ridicule upon us had it come to a fatal issue. 

Then recovering our courage, pressing close to the 
rock, and leaving our horses to find their own way, 
we would make fresh attempts in different directions; 
the one who had the best luck would call to the other, 
and thus we got on little by little. At last, after four 
hours of mortal anguish, the storm having gone down, 
the sky being lighter, the air fresher, and the roar of 
the cataracts sounding further off, we found ourselves 
on more open ground. We had left the Via-Mala 
behind us; our horses had followed us, and a faint 
but welcome light revealed to us a humble chalet, in 
which we took refuge. The next day we got back 
to Coire, whence, Moreau having exchanged our 
regiment with Macdonald for a battalion of greater use 
in these mountains, we pursued our way by Feldkirch 
into Suabia, and having there rejoined the army of the 
Rhine, we were reviewed by our new and celebrated 
general-in-chief. 


CHAPTER Si, 


HOHENLINDEN. 


HE armistice having, however, been extended, Mac- 

donald, general-in-chief of the army of the Grisons, 
and General Dumas, the head of his staff, had taken 
advantage of it to come as far as Augsburg to confer 
with Moreau. Fortunately for me, my regiment was 
passing through the town on the very day of this 
meeting, and General Dumas detained me, presented 
me to the two generals-in-chief, and got Moreau to 
invite me to the dinner which he was giving to Mac- 
donald; a splendid banquet with covers laid for fifty 
guests, a repast of the conquerors served by the con- 
quered at the enemy’s expense, to the sound of martial 
music, in a palace of which we had taken possession, 
the guests being the most celebrated generals of the 
day in the full splendour of their youth and ardour, 
dazzling with gold and glory. I had never seen 
anything like it before and was quite fascinated. I 
began to understand that to the illustrious memories 
of our old aristocracy had succeeded other glories and 
other memories, which would be ineffaceable from that 
moment; that we should date afresh from a new era 
which had left its stamp on the age, and had already 


laid the deep foundations of a new society. I learnt 
22 


AN AIDE-DE-CAMP OF NAPOLEON I. 23 


later that this meeting had not been altogether devoid 
of political motives: one of the principal being the 
jealousy which the ever-growing power of the First 
Consul inspired in these generals. Napoleon’s own 
anxiety was aroused by it; for he had learnt that in 
the midst of the banquet this distrust had found vent 
in a biting sarcasm against one of his sisters; he had 
even been informed that this sally of one of the 
generals-in-chief had been well-received and loudly 
repeated and commented upon by his colleague. 
Besides an ambitious rivalry, there was a feeling of 
sincere republicanism at the bottom of this spirit of 
opposition, although but a pale reflection and an almost 
worn-out impression, it is true, of the former proud and 
patriotic traditions of this army. There might still be 
found amongst them some of those Spartans of the 
Rhine, as they were then called, volunteers of the early 
years of the republic, martyrs to the cause of liberty 
and national independence, for which they had sacri- 
ficed themselves with a devotion free from all personal 
ambition, or hope of fortune, or advancement, or even 
of glory. After having braved every danger, they had 
been known hundreds of times to refuse the highest 
positions, to reject them one after the other, and proud 
of their rigid republican probity, to pursue their way 
in nakedness and hunger, enduring the most cruel 
privations, and, even as conquerors, remaining poor in 
the midst of all the rewards which victory offered; an 
heroic war of citizenship which was very far from being 
a mere calling, in which these elect few, privates, of- 
ficers, generals, warriors by patriotism and not merely 
by profession, had no other thought than to spend 
themselves altogether to ensure the public safety, and 


Zac MEMOIRS GCF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


to return to their homes poor and simple citizens. 

But after 1796 and 1797 when in this very army of 
the Rhine the spirit of conquest had succeeded to this 
former exaltation of the defensive virtues of the country, 
it had all become modified by the continuance of war, 
by the fascination of celebrity, and the contagion of 
acquired fortunes. Even in 1800, at the time when I 
entered it, there remained but few of these primitive 
men who were so entirely patriotic and devoid of pri- 
vate interest: they might be recognized by the sim- 
plicity of their attire and their manner of life, by the 
independent and austere seriousness of their attitude, 
as well as by a certain air of haughty, bitter, and 
contemptuous surprise at the sight of the growing 
luxury and ambitious passions which were taking the 
place of the ingenuous and disinterested devotion of 
the early republican enthusiasms. 

The luxury of this dinner, which I had recently 
attended, and of the greater part of the uniforms worn, 
contrasted strongly with these austere remembrances, 
and yet in the body of this very army some traces of 
them might still be discovered in its honest discipline, 
especially opposed to every kind of pillage, in the 
simple and popular manners, in the good fellowship 
and tone of equality visible not only amongst com- 
rades but also towards the general-in-chief. 

Without effort, and without even being aware of it, 
I had impressed Macdonald favourably, but the impres- 
sion might only have been a transient one without 
General Dumas, who turned it to account, as we shall 
see presently. After the cessation of the armistice, 
about a month later we left our cantonments to assem- 
ble under the command of d’Hautpoul. This general 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 25 


had become famous through a thousand dashing actions 
in the midst of which a short and sublime harangue 
of his was frequently quoted. When his division was 
on the point of rushing on the enemy he dashed past 
it at a gallop, exclaiming: “Carabineers, brave carabi- 
neers, pierce their ranks! Cuirassiers, drive through 
them! Hussars, hack at them!” and giving at the same 
time himself the order and the example, he was obeyed 
instantly. 

His intrepidity, however, must have been rather 
more habitual to him than his eloquence, for with us 
his inspiration was less happy. “ Hussars,” he said, 
“were going to march upon the enemy. Forwards! 
and let not one of you turn tail, otherwise” his anger 
at this very supposition having made him lose the 
thread of his discourse, in order to give himself time to 
pick it up again he began a string of such hearty and 
sonorous oaths that, seeing us all burst out laughing, 
he turned his back abruptly on us, with this fine con- 
clusion: “otherwise, otherwise he will be too late for 
the wedding! ” 

A few days after we arrived at the outposts through 
a long file of men, who had been wounded in the 
early actions which had preluded the battle of Hohen- 
linden. 

As for me, my campaign was to come to an end at 
Hohenlinden. We had just arrived on that snow- 
covered field which was on the point of becoming so 
famous, when, conjointly with the news that Macdonald 
had chosen me for his aide-de-camp, I received the 
order to join him in Valteline. Thus to leave my 
regiment and the army on the very eve of a great 
battle was an impossibility: I obtained an extension 





260 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


which the vivacity of my colonel very nearly caused 
me to repent. 

Our chief was then M. de Labarbée, a man of fifty 
or thereabouts, perhaps less, for at my age, that of a 
mature man always strikes one as more advanced than 
is really the case. It was that former captain of the 
Rochefoucauld Dragoons, renowned for his wit, his 
height, his martial bearing and his herculean strength, 
above all for an unexampled dexterity in all bodily 
exercises, and for a temerity on all occasions and in all 
places which was as audacious as it was lucky. 

It was well known that before the Revolution and 
the war, he had braved the anger of a whole band of 
officers, and had extricated himself brilliantly from 
the quarrel; it was a garrison dispute which occurred 
in a café that had been taken possession of by their 
set, who had made a regulation that officers of any 
other corps who should go there would not be allowed 
to pay for anything they ordered. 

M. de Labarbée, feeling insulted by this pretension, 
refused to submit to it, and as no one dared to receive 
payment from him he began to break everything in 
the place; then, ordering a bucket of lemonade to be 
brought to him, he gave it to his horse to drink, 
saying: “As it was the officers of the king’s regiment 
who paid, there was no reason why he should stint 
himself.” After which, he had quietly awaited the 
result, following it up by several duels, which all ended 
favourably. 

Then came the Revolution, then the emigration and 
the war which rapidly gained hima colonelcy. It was 
at this time, finding himself one day in presence of 
the Austrian cavairy, he ordered the line which he 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 27 


commanded to remain motionless, and springing for- 
ward, sword in hand, rushed on the enemy’s line 
which he broke through, then turning back, and 
making a path for himself through the ranks of the 
enemy, returned, covered with blood, to his own men, 
and calmly again took up his position at their head. 

It may well be believed that a warrior of such a 
character and of such vigour would submit himself 
with difficulty to any discipline, above all to the rules 
of military administration. Thus it happened that when 
on leaving Dijon, a member of the commissariat who 
was inspecting our humble corps, had disapproved of 
a certain conveyance which the colonel had ordered 
for the baggage, we saw him, for all reply, seize hold 
of the commissary, lift him in the air and turn him 
round like a feather and then deposit him head-foremost 
in the waggon, saying: “that he would now be in a 
position to appreciate its usefulness”; then, dropping 
him on his feet, “that he hoped he might always be 
able to get through his inspections as quickly and 
easily.” 

In another review that took place at Lucerne, when 
our then general, an unfrocked monk whom he despised, 
passed before him, instead of saluting him with his 
sword he provoked him by brandishing it around his 
head in a menacing fashion. 

Such was our colonel! Amongst us youngsters, our 
beardless youth reminded him of his own mature years. 
This displeasing comparison very often annoyed him, 
a fact which I perceived on the eve of the battle of 
Hohenlinden, when we met the enemy and heard their 
bullets whistling round us. I was the youngest of 
them all, and, proud to be at the head of my platoon, 


28 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


I was rejoicing in this first sound of war when he 
exclaimed, on perceiving me: “Ah! ah! M. de Seégur, 
you hear those bullets, they will teach you that there 
is no difference between you and me here, and that 
to-day we are all of the same age!” 

Moreau had made our division, which was d’Hautpoul’s, 
pass over rapidly from right to left in a forced night 
march of great cold and severity. We formed the left 
flank of the centre of the army, on which side the 
great day of the morrow was, as far as concerned our 
division, of little importance. But it was not so for 
myself personally. When we were encamped at the 
close of the day, our colonel, who was better lodged, 
and who had presumably dined better than we had, 
came to visit us on horseback. I got in his way without 
knowing it, and he roughly thrust me aside with a 
kick. I protested at this treatment, but he continued 
his course, without looking back or stopping, and 
without condescending to make the slightest apology! 

As for me, almost rooted to the spot and speechless 
at such an unexpected aggression, my imagination 
was all the more active. I passed the night partly 
in fits of rage and partly in helpless outbursts of tears. 
Towards daylight, happening to see the colonel walking 
alone across the plain, I hastened onwards and offered 
him my resignation, explaining that as that would put 
me on an equality with him, I should then make use of 
my right to ask satisfaction for the insult which he had 
offered me. Either M. de Labarbée did not remember 
anything about it, or had not recognized me when he 
pushed me away the evening before. He seemed so 
utterly surprised, and looked me over from head to 
foot with a glance of disdain so eloquent with the 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON IL 29 


exclamation of the Cid: “To seek a quarrel with 
me! What has made thee so vain?” that, could 
Daguerre have fixed that glance instantaneously by 
his new method, I think he would have been able to 
reproduce the verse word for word on my feeble 
body. He, however, said nothing more than this, 
that I could not resign without dishonour, in the face 
of the enemy. I retorted that I considered myself 
already dishonoured by his violence, and that as soon 
as I had satisfied this urgent need of reparation, I 
would again enlist as a private under another chief. 
But he had too good a heart and too much sense 
to take advantage of his position and did not carry 
the matter any further, but called around him several 
officers, to whom he nobly related the inadvertence 
of which he had been guilty, begging them to bear 
testimony to his confession, and making this generous 
and complete reparation in the most honourable and 
flattering manner. There I recognized at once the 
officer of the ancient régime; for nobody was better 
or more pleasant company when he chose; he was 
only otherwise by fits and starts. The rest of that 
day was given up to an engagement which was 
decided by the centre. As for us, our poor part in 
such a great victory only consisted in a few manceuvres 
and skirmishing, followed by camping-out on the ice; 
after which, having been sent to take Moreau’s orders, 
and breakfasting with him at Nymphenburg I returned 
by long stages, alone and penniless, but at the coun- 
try’s expense, to join General Macdonald in Valteline. 
During this journey I again revisited Suabia, Coire, 
the Via-Mala, and that Splugen which I had so little 
appreciated. Indeed, I had almost passed it again without 


30 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


seeing it; it was apparently my fate, whether by my 
own fault or not, to lose the opportunity of noticing 
this gigantic land-mark between the north and the 
south of Europe. But I had been ill for several days, 
and my weary eyes almost overlooked it; I was in 
such a weak condition that after having fastened me 
on my mule, I heard my travelling companions say 
to each other that the journey over the glacier would 
make an end of me, and consider what they should 
do with my remains when on the other side of the 
mountain. But the very reverse happened; the air 
of the glacier renewed my strength, the crisis was a 
favourable one. When we had reached the other bank 
of the Lake of Chiavenna I was hoisted up on a waggon 
horse whose horribly hard trot, which would have killed 
me nowadays, set me quite to rights again. Such is 
the privilege of youth! And thus I arrived completely 
convalescent at Macdonald’s headquarters. 


CHAPTER. V. 
THE CAMPAIGN OF THE GRISONS. 


ACDONALD was at that time a prey to great 

anxiety. The hard task which he accomplished in 
the midst of these glaciers was that of overcoming the 
severity of the season, the dangers of these regions and 
the resistance of the enemy. His army hardly numbered 
40,000 men, and it had to scale the triple summit 
which separated it from the valleys of the Adda, the 
Oglio, and the affluents of the Adige; whence falling 
on Trente, it should take possession of the upper course 
of this stream and that of the Brenta itself. 

The armistice was on the point of termination, when, 
starting from the valley of the Grisons, Macdonald 
began by throwing out across the still practicable 
Splugen, 3,700 men under d’Hilliers in Valteline. He 
himself took up a position at Rinecks, thus drawing 
the attention of the enemy to this opposite side, as 
much by his own presence there as by the important 
entrenchments which he extended from Constance up 
to Feldkirch, their object being at all risks to cover 
his retreat into Switzerland. 

At the same time he pushed on reconnoitring bodies 


towards the sources of the Adda and the Albula, to 
31 


32 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


Bormio, Avos and Lenz and all the issues of the 
Engadine. 

Having thus protected his left flank, he quickly turned 
back towards the right with the residue of forces which 
he could dispose of; and remounting the Rhine up to 
its source, he rapidly passed through Coire and Thusis, 
entered the Via-Mala, road of ill-luck, and arrived at 
the foot of the Splugen. This meant braving the very 
heart of winter, the very stronghold of famine, and all 
the horrors of Alpine chaos on the mountain-tops in 
the very worst season of the year. 

It is fourteen leagues distance from Thusis to Chia- 
venna, but this short journey necessitated one of the 
most formidable conflicts with this cruel country in 
the whole of the war. All necessary precautions had 
been taken, sledges were sufficient for the dismounted 
guns; but there were no baggage mules for the 
stores, so that it was necessary to load every soldier, 
already more than hampered by the weight of his 
knapsack, his cartridge pouch, and his arms, with 
five days’ provisions and ten packets of cartridges. 

This attacking party was divided into four columns. 
For several leagues beyond Thusis the first defiled be- 
tween two high rocks so close to each other that the 
men could hardly see the sky; there was no foot-hold 
but an ice track, a dark, narrow, and slippery ledge 
cut out of the rock on the edge of a gulf, intersected 
in several places by rickety wooden bridges, by which 
they crossed from one side to the other of these two 
masses, with an abyss of 300 feet beneath them and the 
double mountain over their heads. Torrents rushing 
down the precipices, icicles of a thousand shapes, and 
avalanches which broke down the infrequent pine-trees 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 33 


and the insufficient railings, were the least of the 
obstacles on this Via-Mala passage to Splugen. The 
column arrived at Splugen on November 26th, having 
to scale the glacier in front of them, which ascent was 
begun on the 27th. In the good season three hours 
are sufficient to reach the hospital, but at this time 
they did not know whether it might not take them the 
whole day. During the first hour, the left bank of 
the torrent which they were following was a guide to 
them and the fatigue was endurable; but when they 
had reached the head of the valley, an ascent of 60 
degrees in the gradient, which took an hour-and-a-half, 
exhausted their strength. The top was_ reached, 
however, the mountain was conquered and they found 
themselves at the parting of the waters of the north 
and of the south of Europe! The cold drove them on, 
and having recovered breath, they resumed their way 
through two glaciers separated by a space of 400 me- 
tres: guides placing land-marks in the road which the 
workers swept for them, sixty dragoons of the roth, 
with General la Boissiere at their head, trampling down 
the snow. 

It was hoped that before night they would reach 
the hospital where the highest plain begins, when 
suddenly the wind rose in the east. They were im- 
mediately enveloped in thick clouds of snow and 
pulverized ice, but persevered on their way until an 
enormous avalanche about a hundred feet in diameter 
detached itself from one of the summits with the 
rumbling and velocity of a thunder-bolt. It carried off 
the head of the column. Thirty dragoons disappeared 
with the horses which they were leading; they were 


borne down into the torrent, flung against the rocks 
5 


34 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


and buried under the snow. The general was marching 
on a little distance ahead, which saved him; he was 
almost the only one left, and half-frozen, and in a fainting 
condition, was carried by the mountaineers to the 
hospital. As for his column, which was almost entirely 
separated from him, it had to stop short; a mountain 
of snow had filled up the path, and being unable 
either to advance or remain stationary they retraced 
their steps towards Splugen. 

On the next day, the 28th, the remainder of this 
cruelly mutilated company of dragoons with Cavaignac, 
colonel of the regiment, were the first to offer to start 
anew. But the storm continued, and this tempest even 
lasted to December ist, the guides declaring that the 
glacier would be rendered impracticable for a fortnight. 
Macdonald, however, who was still at Coire, sent word 
to hasten the march, for the provisions were giving out, 
and it was necessary to get on as quickly as possible 
to avoid famine and stoppage. 

But on December ist, a fine frost having set in, 
General Dumas, the head of the army staff, took ad- 
vantage of it, overcoming the opposition of the moun- 
taineers and the mountain itself. The account of his 
arrangements is remarkable; under his orders the best 
guides with four of the strongest oxen of the country 
walked abreast, breaking a way through the snow, 
which forty labourers, who followed, cleared away. 
After them a company of sappers continued the work 
which was finally accomplished by two hundred foot 
soldiers marching in solid ranks of six abreast Then 
came the cavalry, then the artillery, and lastly the 
baggage animals with their escort. 

Silence had been enjoined, and was observed as 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 35 


strictly as at manceuvres. Thus they advanced through 
this deep cutting, but the progress was so slow 
that it was nearly night before they reached the 
hospital. Several men were frozen; some soldiers and 
horses went beyond the track and were buried in 
the snows which hid the precipice. A sea of snow a 
quarter of a league in depth had then to be crossed, 
on which the least wind might raise waves capable 
of burying the whole column. After this there was 
another danger to brave in the descent of the Cardinel, 
a road winding on itself and precipitating itself by a 
spiral and almost perpendicular zigzag into an abyss 
600 feet deep; then came the little plain of Isola, 
and Campo Dolcino, when night fell and arrested fur- 
ther progress. 

During the descent several men turned giddy and 
several mules lost their footing; they rolled mutilated 
from rock to rock, their cries being audible for a few 
moments, and then they disappeared. 

During the two following days the same weather 
favoured the march of the second and third columns. 
On December 5th it was Macdonald’s turn, and the 
fourth and last passage, but the evil genius of these 
high places had regained his sway. A deluge of snow 
filled up the cutting that General Dumas had opened 
up, and the numerous landmarks that had been placed 
there were hidden or carried away by the storm, which 
the mountaineers refused to face. Macdonald, however, 
grew angry and obstinately resumed the march. His 
guides, and even his grenadiers, were several times 
daunted, and retraced their steps, but he persisted, 
walking at their head, with the plummet in his hand, 
insisting on the great masses of snow being opened 


36 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


up as he passed through, and the guides and soldiers 
in spite of the increasing hurricane were forced to 
follow him. 

He succeeded at last, but his column was on several 
occasions cut in two at various points, and separated 
from him by banks of snow. The 1o4th half-brigade 
which had been entirely scattered took days to reunite. 
Many sledges and their burdens were abandoned, 
indeed on this last day many soldiers were maimed 
by the cold: a hundred and ten men and more than 
a hundred mules and horses perished altogether. 

On December 6th, two-thirds of the army of the 
Grisons had passed the flow of the German waters up 
to the sources of the Italian waters. They filled the 
Valteline. 

But there still remained the passage, from glacier 
to glacier, of the valley of the Adda into that of the 
Adige. First came the ascent of Aprica, which is 
perhaps less elevated, but more winding, steeper and 
more rugged than even the Splugen. Not so many 
men perished there, but more horses, especially the 
baggage animals; hampered by their burdens they 
could not turn round with sufficient quickness in the 
sudden bends of the path, which, rising and descending 
almost perpendicularly, wound in steep zigzags between 
the rocks; many of them rolled down the precipices. 

Having reached the valley of Camonica the advance- 
guard attempted the Tonnal. But the passage was 
defended by 50,000 Austrians who had intrenched them- 
selves behind the ice, and twice in spite of the most 
determined and intrepid assaults, our Generals Vaux 
and Vandamme, were obliged to give way after having 
reddened the glacier with blood needlessly spilt. On 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. mu 


his side Macdonald vainly endeavoured to turn the left 
flank, and to arrive upon the Sarca beyond one of the 
forts of the Tonnal. Here it was nature alone, unaided 
by the enemy which opposed them; for no passage 
could be found practicable. 

Then, reinforced by 2,000 Italians, the general-in- 
chief descended the Oglio as far as Visogne. The 
news of the passage of the Mincio by our army of 
Italy had rendered him most impatient. When he 
announced it to us, he asked his soldiers, now almost 
equal to mountaineers, if they would allow themselves 
to be passed by their comrades, who had been victorious 
in the plains, and, with an unerring instinct, judging 
our ardour by his own, he carried us straight on to the 
San-Tyéno. This mountain is unapproachable by artil- 
lery, and even the cavalry had to turn back by the 
Lake of Iseo. As for us, even after the Splugen, the 
glacier astonished us: it is so elevated, so steep, so 
full of the rudest difficulties, that even for infantry it 
is necessary to open a passage through enormous 
blocks of ice by hewing out steps with axes. We were 
obliged to make use of our hands as well as our feet 
and to hold on by the tails of our horses to reach the 
summit. At last, from crest to crest, from ravine to 
ravine, crossing without stopping night or day and ata 
quick march, twenty-five leagues of slush and ice, we 
passed the enemy, the advance posts, in short every- 
thing; and on January 8th, 1801, ascending the summit 
of the Michelsburg, we flung ourselves on the Adige, 
forcing the passage, and snatching from the Austrians 
the town of Trente. 

Without taking breath, Macdonald, at Levico, seized 
on the one hand the sources of the Brenta and on the 


38 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


other, pushed forward towards Pietra the vanquished 
who were descending the Adige. 

Here we witnessed the audacious and even 
haughty spirit of Macdonald, and his frank and proud 
glance, which was often tempered by satirical gaiety, 
become transfigured by keen delight, when the south 
wind brought us the sound of firing which appeared 
to respond to the volleys of his advance-guard: this 
could only be the firing of Brune’s army. 

The enemy which we were following, however nu- 
merous it might have been, was thus surrounded in 
the narrow and deep valley of the Adige, between 
Macdonald who was descending, and the left wing of 
the army of Italy which was mounting it. Thus so 
many difficulties, so many obscure and inglorious con- 
flicts with nature, were at last to be crowned by one 
of the most striking acts of this war; for, in fact, the 
cannonading we had heard came from General Moncey, 
the commandant of Brune’s left wing. The enemy 
between two fires comprised Laudon and those very 
200,000 Austrians who by the efforts of the front of 
Macdonald’s left wing on the upper Inn and the upper 
Adige, and his rapid manceuvre on the right, had been 
forced to abandon the Tyrol. They hastened to take 
refuge near their army of Italy, and found them- 
selves surrounded and attacked in front and at the 
rear at the very moment they had hoped to reach it. 

But Moncey, who was a kind-hearted man, was also 
of too anxious a nature. His responsibilities excited 
him too much. This disposition of mind had no doubt 
been aggravated under the odious government of the 
Terror which insisted on its generals being victorious, 
under penalty of losing their heads. Laudon took 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 39 


advantage of it; feeling himself caught as it were in 
a trap, he had recourse to stratagem. He announced 
to Moncey the false news of an armistice. Moncey 
hesitated; on the one hand, the position of the enemy, 
retrenched within the Pietra seemed formidable to him, 
on the other hand, the same south wind which had 
borne to us the sound of his firing had unfortunately 
prevented him from hearing ours; so that not knowing 
we were immediately behind Laudon, he was unaware 
of the full extent of this general’s difficulty, and did not 
sufficiently distrust him. Moved at the thought of the 
bloodshed which would ensue, and having obtained all 
that he had desired, the conquest of Pietra and cession 
of Trente, the unfortunate general hesitated no longer, 
but signed the suspension of arms which was demanded, 
and the too-lucky Laudon, at the very time when he 
would have been forced to lay down his arms, profited 
by this respite, escaping from the valley of the Adige 
into that of the Brenta, through an almost impracticable 
defile. 

The Pietra being thus abandoned and the enemy 
dispersed, the astonished advance-guard of the army 
of Italy found itself face to face with ours. Moncey, 
at one and the same moment, perceiving Macdonald, 
and recognising that he had been the victim of a 
stratagem of war, that his credulity had caused him to 
lose one of the most important results of the campaign, 
and that he would become the laughing-stock of three 
armies, was confused and humiliated and utterly crushed 
by his mistake. The same disposition of mind which 
had led him into the error almost caused him to kill 
himself in despair. This mystification had entailed on 
Macdonald the loss of the entire fruits of his adroit and 


40 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


difficult manceuvre; yet he forgot it all to console him. 
As for Brune, who still openly proclaimed himself a 
Terrorist, he was less generous: in his anger he replaced 
Moncey by Davout in the command of the left wing, 
but Davout nobly refused to take advantage of his 
misfortune; under the necessity of obeying, although 
he came to Pietra it was only to place himself under 
the orders of his unfortunate former comrade. 


CHAPTERS Vi. 
I RALLY TO THE REVOLUTION. 


ACDONALD, either through foresight, or on 

account of his haughty and somewhat suspicious 
character, accused Brune not only of not having seconded 
his difficult march with sufficient promptitude, but of 
having purposely defeated its aim by stealing a march 
upon him in Trente with his left wing. He was, above 
all, indignant at having been treated merely as one 
of his lieutenants when he involved him in his armistice. 
His displeasure even extended to the First Consul. 
Why had he deceived him as well as the enemy by 
only giving him 14,000 men, when he had promised 
him 30,000? Why had he assigned him the least 
brilliant and the most trying share in these dangers 
and struggles with the natural difficulties of the under- 
taking? Why had he, in a manner, placed him under 
the orders of Brune? What a humiliation it would 
have been had he not forestalled in Trente by a 
few hours, the general’s left wing! His inadequate and 
harassed army would have overcome nothing but the 
glaciers, and issuing forth devoid of glory, would have 
been forced to receive from the hands of Brune as a 
reward of so many hardships this rich cantonment won 
by a last march of almost fabulous rapidity. 


4i 


A2 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


With such dispositions on the part of our chief, one 
can imagine the quarrelsome and hostile spirit which 
animated our headquarters. A few days only had 
sufficed to restore our young troops, when the armistice, 
a threatening symptom of peace, aroused our impatience, 
which found vent in a thousand remarks, the impru- 
dence of which at such a time was not sufficiently 
taken into consideration. 

“What could we do with a peace which would only 
“profit the Director? Each army would then only have 
“fought for itself! By what right should his guides, 
“his guards, his armies of Egypt and Marengo with 
“their renown in direct rivalry to ours, blazon it forth 
“on their banners above every other? Would it be 
“permitted that the conquerors of Naples, of Zurich, and 
“of Hohenlinden, that Macdonald, Masséna, and Moreau 
“himself, all our generals-in-chief in short, should become 
“the subjects and the footstool of Bonaparte?” 

These sentiments, not openly avowed by all, were 
fermenting in all hearts, inflamed by the most jealous 
of passions, the love of glory, and envious equality ; 
and the pride of our generals with whom we all united 
in a feeling of indignation at enforced submission to 
another general-in-chief, formerly their companion in 
arms and their equal. 

Such passions menaced the rising power of the 
First Consul, and were eagerly fed by every breath 
borne to us from the capital by private letters and a 
pernicious press, rousing into being a_ still more 
violent passion, which, in addition to the others, 
especially in the army, excited universal discontent. 
There, above all, the war of the Revolution had been 
a war of caste and classes. This plebeian army had 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 43 


there attained glory and position in opposition to the 
French aristocracy and all the foreign aristocracies, 
whose patrimony these positions had been from all 
time. Generals, officers, nearly all dated from 1792. 
The remembrance of their humiliations under the 
Monarchy was still alive. Whatever pride and strength 
they might feel in their illustrious acquisitions, these 
were yet of recent date, and they had been contested 
and endangered within a year by the triumphs of the 
Coalition. They knew that in the eyes of the nobility 
of the whole of Europe, they were considered only as 
an army of farvenus, possessing no other right than 
that of victory. ; 

This was where the sting lay. In these days when 
time has confirmed results, when the fusion has taken 
place, and the decreasing struggle has altered its 
nature by being transformed from that of the poor 
against the rich, or rather that of those who possess 
nothing against those who possess something, there 
still remains enough of that jealous distrust to enable 
one to realize how keen it then was. 

Into the midst of this burning focus of self-love and 
self-interest, pride and honour, the news came from 
Paris of the proposals of the Pretender, the return 
of the émigrés, and their reception at the hands of 
Madame Bonaparte. There was a general outcry. 
The feeling of irritation became so strong at head- 
quarters that, for having made an appeal to the 
national generosity in favour of the most inoffensive 
of these exiles, I was warned in conversation that 
I was becoming a suspect, and that my presence in 
the ranks of my comrades would be intolerable. 

Such was the general perturbation of mind, the 


44 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


germ of which was already perceptible when we 
learnt the outrage of the 3rd Nivdése followed by the 
transportation of the Terrorists. This criminal attempt 
had not met with the indignation which it deserved; 
it had even been made to appear ridiculous, party 
spirit being so excited. The independent and jealous 
pride of the chiefs was aroused by this disposition of 
mind; it hoped something from it. We know what 
were the bitter fruits it produced: it was fatal to 
Moreau four years later; it checked the career of his 
best lieutenants, and for the space of eight years it 
arrested that of our general himself. Otherwise this 
was less serious at Trente than at the headquarters 
of the army of Germany, thanks to the merry life we 
led there, to the composition of the army, and also 
to the refined and elegant habits, the noble sentiments, 
and the constant cheerfulness of Macdonald’s happy 
nature. 

It was then that I understood the Revolution. For 
the first time I saw its strongest and deepest roots 
revealed to the light of day. My youthful affections 
had been wounded by the passions which surrounded 
me, they thrust me back upon myself, self-contained 
as I already was by nature, and rendered my position 
most difficult, but the situation was not altogether 
unprofitable. In the midst of this plebeian army so 
justly proud of itself, I was able to gauge the double 
folly of royalist and above all aristocratic pertinacity: 
the first under the Republican banners seeming to me 
a treachery; whilst, as to the second, I felt amongst 
so many older, more experienced, and wiser warriors 
than myself, that these exclusive pretensions of birth 
were not only dangerous, but even unjust and 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 45 


ridiculous. From that moment I accepted the Revo- 
lution as an accomplished fact, founded on right, 
demanding our adherence as a matter of good sense 
and equity, in the best interests of our country and 
even those of the old nobility itself. 

Having once acquired this conviction, traced out 
this route, and chosen this part, I remained constant 
to it; I desired to serve it, by drawing with me old 
France, that is to say, the greatest number of nobles 
possible, so as to hasten the fusion, and prevent the 
possibility from henceforth of any return to the pro- 
scriptions of the Convention and the Directorate. This 
idea took strong hold of me, and from that moment 
it has persistently inspired my intercourse, my actions, 
and even my simplest words. 

This was especially the case when, by way of 
encouraging myself in a course in which all the actors 
had changed parts, I used constantly to count over and 
recapitulate the names of colonels and generals of the 
old nobility who, in spite of the proscriptions, were then 
serving in the line regiments of the army and who 
should strengthen my position in it. These were Cau- 
laincourt, d’Hautpoul, Grouchy, Pully, Rochambeau, 
d’Hilliers, Macdonald, etc., etc.; I only forgot one of them, 
the one to whom I owed my own call, and who was soon 
to become our most powerful protector. I mean the 
First Consul! But through the inconsistent impulses 
natural to my age, blindly yielding to the influence 
of the atmosphere around me, I saw in him nought 
but a temporary usurper, my general’s enemy and 
that of Moreau, who was shortly to be overwhelmed by 
the weight of universal hatred. 

For all that, this dominating idea of mine may appear 


46 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


somewhat deep-rooted and tenacious to have emanated 
from the brain of a young sub-lieutenant of twenty. 
But it must be borne in mind that I felt isolated 
and almost a suspect; I was poor, dreamy, and pas- 
sionate; ultra sensitive as far as concerned both myself 
and others; constantly observing them and myself, 
judging them after my own pattern, and fancying that 
I was much more an object of observation than was ~ 
really the case. 

My mode of life at Trente was economical, prudent, 
and studious. My inclination to take everything seri- 
ously, my deeply impressionable nature which neces- 
sitated some management, without causing me to fall 
out with my comrades, yet kept me aloof from them. 

One of them only the other day was reminding me 
that they had seen nothing in this studiously busy 
isolation of mine beyond a marked taste, nay, a strange 
and precocious passion for work, which they respected 
even while complaining of it; so that in the midst of 
a thousand pleasures and frivolities which the armistice 
left these excitable and lively youths—perhaps rather 
too fond of play—the leisure to indulge in, my only 
pursuit by day was study, and my only amusement 
by night was to play chess with a Colonel Dimbowski, 
an old Pole who was a master of the game and whose 
sole endeavour was to teach me enough to render me 
able to hold my own against him. My studies for- 
tunately trended in the right direction, either through 
the influence of General Dumas and that of my father’s 
letters, or from a feeling of shame at my own ignorance 
concerning the spirit, the aim, the localities and events 
appertaining to our campaign. 

At that time we were all lodged together in the 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 47 


vast Gothic palace of the Bishop of Trente. I got 
Macdonald to entrust me with his correspondence, and 
his instructions to his generals, which I used to carry 
off to my third story, where, once again fired by my 
early passion for work (though now for a more posi- 
tive and useful object), I seriously embarked on my 
double career of soldier and historian. I used to make 
extracts from all these documents; I steeped myself 
in their essence, which helped me to the understanding 
of the questions I would put to our chiefs, and a 
thorough survey and study of the plan of campaign. 
Having got thus far, and our departure drawing nigh, 
I carefully packed up my precious treasures, little 
thinking how soon I should have occasion to make 
use of my work at Copenhagen; that later on it would 
see the light in Paris, and be one of the very means 
which caused me to be selected to serve on the spe- 
cial private staff of Bonaparte. 

So far was I then from seeking to attach myself to 
this great man, that I did not even desire to do so. 
His actions, nevertheless, should even then have revealed 
him to me as the protector and reconciler, whose 
powerful succouring hand might alone draw together 
and amalgamate the old and new elements of French 
society. But at my age, without a guiding light or 
mentor, I could not do otherwise than go astray. 
Where is the sub-lieutenant of twenty who reads or 
cares to read the daily publications? Yet at that age 
one rashly begins to write a literary work without 
any preconceived plan, in the same way that one forms 
an Opinion, or even takes a part in the politics of the 
day, on hearsay, without reflecting on the consequences. 
This study was more difficult in the army than any- 


48 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


where else. So that when, after the Peace of Luné- 
ville, I, being the youngest, was left behind with orders 
to escort the guard and baggage of General Macdon- 
ald’s headquarters to Lyons, across the upper part of 
Italy, I was in utter ignorance of the events which 
were even then taking place in France. 


CHAE ITER Vil 


I ACCOMPANY MACDONALD ON HIS EMBASSY 
TO DENMARK. 


HE generals-in-chief who had returned to France, 

at the time of the peace, had been obliged to 
descend from the heights of command, and could 
with difficulty reconcile themselves to this species of 
downfall: they endured impatiently the rapidly growing 
supremacy of one amongst them who had formerly 
been their comrade and their equal. They criticised 
and blamed everything loudly, especially the Concordat. 
This spirit of revolt was beginning to extend even as 
far as to the Consular Guard which Lannes commanded. 
The discontented pride of these generals was ever 
growing, and it increased by the support of many war- 
riors, whose fame, proceeding almost entirely from the 
north, felt itself aggrieved by the more popular glory of 
the south, which clung to those who had conquered under 
Bonaparte. Thence resulted two rival camps—two 
armies which were almost enemies. Following on the 
perils of a foreign war, which had been overcome, arose 
the necessity of forestalling those of this jealous rivalry 
in our own ranks—this smouldering intestine war. 
With this aim in view, especially in the case of Moreau, 


honours were bestowed, praise lavished, and family 
6 49 


50 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


alliances set on foot; in fact, every kindly means of 
conciliation was made use of; but this general’s oppo- 
sition has already been seen. With the others, for 
instance Bernadotte, St. Cyr, Brune, Augereau, and 
Macdonald, Napoleon employed more efficacious means. 
Missions of various kinds, some warlike, others both 
warlike and diplomatic scattered them abroad. Berna- 
dotte was sent out in command of the armies of the 
west, and to St. Cyr was given the command in Spain 
of the French Division which had been sent out against 
Portugal. Lannes and Brune were dispatched, the one 
as ambassador to Lisbon and the other to Constantinople. 
As for Macdonald, whose free and sarcastic speech, 
whose proud and independent character, and whose 
friendly relations with Moreau rendered him somewhat of 
an obstacle, even before his return to France in the 
early months of 1801, he was destined for Denmark. 

Denmark held the key of the Baltic. By virtue of 
its position as an advance post of the armed neutrality 
of the kings of the North which was threatened by 
the English fleet, and determined to defend itself, it 
demanded a general from us. Macdonald’s mission to 
this distant court was therefore represented to him as 
being less of a diplomatic than of a military nature. He 
was to carry to this extremity of Europe the glory of 
the French arms, and his aides-de-camp, his staff, and 
his engineers and artillery officers were to accompany 
him to the spot. Macdonald only accepted this mission 
on the condition that he should be called back as soon 
as it ceased to be of a warlike nature, consequently 
having immediately started from Trente for Paris by 
way of Verona, Milan and Turin, he left me orders, 
as the youngest of his aides-de-camp, to bring back 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. al 


to France his headquarters and two companies of infantry 
and cavalry which were to escort it. Fortune thus 
favoured me, in that during my first year of service, I had 
seen the south-east of France, Switzerland, the South 
of Germany and the whole of the Alps; I was now 
going to see the north of Italy; I had taken part in 
a great battle, in the war of the plains, in that of the 
mountains; finally, I was only returning to Paris to 
leave it again, and to see, in a two-fold aspect, the east 
of France and the north of Europe. 

On my arrival in Milan I paid a visit to General 
Moncey who was the commander-in-chief there, and 
I found his appearance was quite in harmony with his 
position. He had a grand bearing, was of fine stature, 
with a noble countenance, and grave and stately 
manners. To this exterior aspect, however, and a noble 
heart was joined a mind ever over-anxious; caring too 
much for the praise or blame of others, he over-rated 
those who opposed him, so that he added to his real 
difficulties by having to encounter those he created 
for himself in his adversary. 

I am still astonished when I think of the longevity 
of this marshal, that his anxious disposition and irritable 
conscience, which the least responsibility excited beyond 
expression, should not have worn out his life. A breath, 
a trifle, put him into a fever. He was in that condition 
at this very moment, notwithstanding the general esteem 
in which he was held, and the favour of the First Con- 
sul; and this was due not only to the recollection of 
his unfortunate armistice of Pietra, but also, in spite 
of the Treaty of Lunéville, to the anxieties of a command 
which, however, had become of quite a pacific nature. 
A quarter-of-an-hour’s conversation thoroughly revealed 


52 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


to me this uncomfortable condition of mind, which never 
gave him an instant’s peace. I was astonished at it 
then, and forty-one years afterwards, I cannot understand 
how, perpetually a prey to such wearing emotions, it 
was possible that he could still be in existence! 

A year after my first departure, during the second 
fortnight in May, I returned to Paris and found myself 
once more with my family. The return of summer, 
coincident with my own, had driven my former set out 
of Paris. This was one difficulty the less for me; the 
trial, however, would in any case have been of short 
duration, for on arrival I received the order to be 
ready to start off again. I heard that Macdonald, on 
his return to Trente, passing by Nevers, had learnt 
there the assassination of Paul I., and the disaster of 
the Danish fleet, burnt by Nelson in the roadstead of 
Copenhagen, and of the forced submission which had 
been the consequence; that fancying his mission was 
then without an object, he had considered himself 
released from it; but that Napoleon had persevered, 
alleging as a pretext, the possibility of arousing 
from this double disaster the armed neutrality of the 
kings of the North; and that, in order to decide him 
to go to Denmark, he had held out the flattering bait, 
after a short stay in this post, of the ambassadorship 
of St. Petersburg. Macdonald already was at great 
expense, busy with the necessary preparations for so 
important a destination. The First Consul, who never 
neglected the slightest detail, had remembered the 
brilliant reputation which my father had left behind 
him at the court of the great Catharine: and he insisted 
that I should be diplomatically attached to this embassy. 
On June 1st I received my nomination; and soon after, 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 53 


in the capacity of junior attaché and aide-de-camp, 
I started with Macdonald. It would have been impossible 
to present for the first time to the north of Europe a 
more illustrious or worthy representative of the pure 
glory of the arms of the Republic. This journey was a 
continual triumph for Macdonald, in which we had even 
more than our proper share. The multitude pressed 
after us on every occasion; Macdonald showed himself 
generous even to prodigality, above all, towards any 
needy Frenchman whom he met on his way. We 
saw Leipsic, Dresden, and Pilnitz, that celebrated 
starting-point of the war of the Revolution. We were 
presented to the Elector, a worthy prince, though of 
a methodical character, so much the slave of etiquette 
that it followed him, so they said, into the very interior 
of his palace, even into the arms of the Electress! 
We used to make a joke of it then: our native 
revolutionary thoughtlessness and want of method 
made merry over the superabundance of it possessed 
by this people; to-day, some of us may think it would 
have been better had we been more like them. We 
may even regret that we did not possess those wise, 
regular, and orderly habits which the difference in our 
national characters does not allow of our imitating. 
We were detained some days in Berlin. I there 
received from the princes and princesses of this court, 
and still more explicitly from many of their followers, 
much testimony to the deep esteem in which they 
held my father, his history of the late King of 
Prussia (truthful though it was), and the expression of 
their regrets that this prince had followed opposite coun- 
sels to those which my father had tendered him during 
his last diplomatic mission. It may be remembered 


54 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


that this mission had preceded the war of 1792, which 
it had not been able to prevent. 

Concerning the non-success of their first campaign, 
one of the former aides-de-camp of this deceased monarch 
endeavoured to make excuses for it in this wise: 
according to him, the orders given to the Duke of 
Brunswick had not been carried out. Frederick William 
II. had not intended at Valmy to stop short at a mere 
cannonading. His idea had been to attack and engage 
the enemy. But the Duke of Brunswick, remembering 
only too well that the king had been his pupil, had 
paid no heed to his instructions. This officer also owned 
to me that, misled by our emzgrés, they had only 
expected a mere military march, in the course of which 
the various inhabitants, and our army itself, should have 
hastened to rally round the Prussian flag. He thus 
accounted for the fatal proclamation of the Duke, the 
disappointment of this general, and the discouragement 
which had resulted from it. 

Our sojourn in Denmark, lasted for six whole months. 
But Macdonald in each dispatch renewed the demand 
for his recall, in the last clamouring for it so imperiously 
that it was obliged to be conceded. 

This sojourn, however, worked for my good; it even 
exercised over my future a fortunate, unexpected, and 
decided influence. If I allude to this with complacence 
I beg to be excused. These details overbalance the 
futile reputation which I had gained by the songs 
which I used to scribble heedlessly on the margin of 
the archives of our legation, and which did not bear 
favourable testimony to any serious pursuit of study. 
At the age of twenty, little excuse is perhaps needed 
for some frivolous amusement in the midst of real 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 55 


work; but my own self love, and the necessity of 
leaving a good example behind, induce me to say that 
it would have been wrong to judge by appearances 
only; that in reality I employed my time satisfactorily, 
and if the result had been more fortunate than I had 
any reason to expect, at any rate I deserved it to a 
certain extent. In the daytime, with Macdonald and 
elsewhere, at table or in society, I used to seek the 
society of the most famous people, listening to them, 
and asking them as many questions as my youth war- 
ranted, thus trying to collect as many notions as 
possible on the country, the things and the men amongst 
whom I found myself; then at night, before setting to 
work on my summary, I would joyfully enrich my 
note-book with the booty which I had been acquiring. 
I did even more; having once begun my hoard, I 
became greedy; using every effort to add to it. I even 
dared to carry my ignorance to the most distinguished 
savants. The professors, amongst them a Frenchman 
and the celebrated Nybourg himself, treated me with 
indulgence. This savant who was pallid, ill, and 
enfeebled by hard work, had already nearly lost his 
sight; the least light dazzled him. It was, therefore, 
when night put a stop to his work that I used to seek 
him out to converse with him. I would enter, groping 
my way to his inner den, where I could hardly see 
him by the feeble light of a solitary candle, in the 
midst of folios and dusty MSS. which surrounded him, 
and with which his room was crowded. Our conver- 
sations would sometimes distract his attention from 
them, and this intercourse was good for both of us; 
I acquired scientific instruction from it, while he gained 
rest: which was what each of us needed. 


56 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


Up to this time the news of our successes and 
reverses had exercised a remarkable influence on this 
cold and distant people. The Danish Government 
had thought it best to give way to it. Should we 
succeed, the astute Bernstorf would slightly loosen the 
reins on the neck of the people; should the Coalition 
get the upper hand, he would gently tighten the curb. 

Nevertheless, the taste for our Revolution in this country 
had been so keen, and had so blinded their discernment, 
that during the Terror, Robespierre, not only in the eyes 
of the Danish bourgeoisie, but even amongst the aristo- 
crats and the Duchess of Augustenburg herself, had 
passed for a great man! His discourses had been read 
with enthusiasm: his victims had been condemned as 
justly-punished traitors, his downfall had been lamented! 
However gross may have been this error it was a long 
time before the people saw more clearly. 

In looking over my notes, I find in addition to these 
observations—several of which are now out of date— 
some more trivial anecdotes on the mental state of the 
reigning king, who, however, reigned as little over his 
kingdom as over himself; his senses were not quite adrift, 
but he had unshipped the rudder which had guided 
them. His nonsense was sometimes rather funny. It 
was told of him that one day leaning up against a 
chair in the family circle, after having contemplated 
them all in silence, he suddenly exclaimed: “It must 
“really be confessed that we form a charming party. 
“My daughter is bandy-legged; my son is exactly like 
“an albino; smi \brothern Sard hunchback; my sister 
“squints; and I am a madman!” Then extending his 
observations to the then reigning sovereigns: “For 
“the matter of that,” he continued, “my more distant 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 57 


“family connections are not much better; my cousin 
“George of England is the most demented man in his 
“kingdom; my brother Paul of Russia has a touch of 
“it, I think; my colleague of Naples is not much better; 
“my little cousin of Sweden promises to be as bad; and 
“to return to myself, I am about the maddest of the 
“lot;” then, noticing that one of his courtiers was clasp- 
ing his hands and lifting his eyes to Heaven: ‘“ Well, 
“what do you expect from that? You will not deceive 
“the One above and may as well leave Him alone,” he 
added. 

There had been some scandal about the wife of his 
brother (who was, as we have seen, a puny and mis- 
shapen prince,) and a courtier of herculean stature. 
The latter one evening felt a smart tap on his shoul- 
der, upon which he turned round. “I beg your par- 
“don,” cried the king, bursting out laughing; “ but I 
“really took you for my own brother! ” 

Other scandal-mongers accused the Prince Royal of 
sacrificing too much to his military position, but of 
only bringing to bear on this expensive mania the 
restricted views of a corporal. It is true that in the 
frequent reviews which we witnessed we had often 
seen the prince, who was otherwise very good- 
natured, get into a rage with his grenadiers, abuse 
and even beat them, then himself taking a place in 
the ranks, mark step with his cane over his shoulder, 
and make himself a perfect laughing-stock. One day 
when he was submitting to his father’s approbation and 
explaining to him the economy of a plan of financial 
reform, the king, without answering, got up and began 
gravely to march up and down with his cane over 
his shoulder, saying: “ Right, left! right, left!” then, 


58 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


stopping in front of his son: “ That’s the kind of thing 
that is too expensive, sir!” he retorted; however, as 
the prince insisted, the king gave way; but recognis- 
ing that his son was as mad as himself, he signed 
“Christian and Company.” 

On October 11th, Colonel Duroc, an aide-de-camp 
of Bonaparte, arrived. His mission was to Berlin 
and St. Petersburg principally, then Stockholm and 
Copenhagen. My wish to add to the contents of my 
note-book led me to seek him out without any ulterior 
idea. The young men of those days accustomed to 
risk everything for glory, and living in the midst of 
new and rapidly-rising reputations and constant illus- 
trious. self-sacrifices, either Royalist or Republican, 
were not self-interested. I was like them in this respect, 
and even more so owing to the family conditions in which 
I had been brought up, and had no ambition beyond 
that of being highly considered. On this occasion I 
thought of nothing but winning the esteem of this 
individual. His reserved and scrutinizing attitude gave 
me little encouragement at first; besides I looked, and 
was, so young then that he did not notice me much 
amongst so many older people; but it happened for- 
tunately on the second day of his arrival, that amidst 
a small circle to whom Duroc had addressed some 
questions upon the Danish fleet and army, I alone 
was able to answer them. Thereupon, either from 
curiosity or surprise, he continued by taking me aside 
and entering into conversation; when, as may well be 
believed, I was not backward in exhibiting my new 
acquirements. The result was that Duroc sought 
me out in his turn; and that, flattered by his notice, 
I offered him a note of all the information I 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 59 


had collected which would be likely to render his mis- 
sion more effectual, and which he accepted. 

On the day of his departure, October 15th, I guessed 
by the manner in which he wished me good-bye, and 
by the friendliness of the officer who accompanied 
him, and who pressed me to join him very soon in 
Paris and enter the Guides regiment in which he was 
a captain, that I had acquired the esteem and friend- 
ship of the illustrious traveller. I, however, soon 
forgot this, seeing in the incident nothing beyond the 
desire of rendering himself generally agreeable; but 
I had made more way than I thought, and this 
interview was fated to exercise the most powerful 
influence on my destiny. Duroc had carried away a 
pleasing and even affectionate remembrance of our 
meeting, a feeling which he lost no time in imparting 
to the First Consul and which was not to be subse- 
quently effaced. Such is the importance of creating a 
favourable first impression; a success which a studious 
youth easily acquires on account of the surprise which 
is inspired by the contrast of a steady desire for work 
at an age when pleasure is more attractive, and to the 
indulgence which is naturally extended to youth. 

Not having anticipated any special results, I returned 
on his departure to my habitual life of quiet observation, 
without knowing that it had already borne all possible 
fruit. 

My thoughts too, were soon to be entirely centred 
in the news of a sad and unexpected loss: this was 
the death of the Maréchal de Ségur, my grandfather, 
who was taken from us on October 8th, 1801, 
by a fit of the gout. Macdonald, however, more and 
more disgusted with his new career, could see no 


60 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


object in his mission but his own removal from the 
capital; and in truth it had no other. Thus on September 
5th, 1801, irritated by the evasions by which Talleyrand 
responded to his demands for a recall, he wrote 
him a rude and threatening letter, which needlessly 
occasioned a complete breach; for the minister, in a 
dispatch dated the previous night (December 4th), had 
at last sent him his letters of recall. These he received 
on December i1oth and at once acted on them; leaving 
Copenhagen on the 23rd he brought us back in the 
first month of 1802 to Paris, where Duroc had only 
preceded us by some weeks, 


CHAPTER. VILE 


I AM ENTRUSTED WITH A MISSION TO THE 
KING OF SPAIN. 


N the midst of the first feeling of melancholy plea- 

sure with which I revisited my people for the second 
time after our cruel loss, my six months’ absence, and 
my trying voyage at such a bad time of year, I per- 
ceived that my father, Macdonald, and the First Consul 
had determined no longer to look upon me as a soldier. 
I saw that my letters, my observations of the country 
which I had just left, and, above all, the kind report of 
Duroc, my rank of junior attaché, and my father’s own 
renown as a diplomatist, had caused me to be con- 
sidered for the future as marked out for that career. 
It was opposed to my own inclinations and the general 
feeling of the day, to the impressions which I had received 
from the example of Macdonald, and the attraction 
which the career of arms had always had for me from 
my childhood. 

Having, therefore, made my choice between my two 
commissions of junior attaché and sub-lieutenant, when 
Macdonald joined us for the purpose of paying our 
homage to the First Consul, I begged him to introduce 


me only in my position of aide-de-camp to Bonaparte. 
61 


62 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


But he took no notice of it; and when my turn 
came I was introduced as a junior attache. 

This took place in the chamber now known as the 
Throne-room in the Tuileries. Bonaparte stopped short 
on hearing my name coupled with the designation of 
junior attaché and looked at me fixedly and his coun- 
tenance which was grave that day assumed a bene- 
volent aspect as he answered: “Yes, I know that he 
shows much promise.” But although I saw this great 
man for the first time at close quarters, I was not so 
dazzled as | might have been, on account of the hostile 
sentiments held at headquarters, and having made up 
my mind not to tie myself in any way, I ventured to 
contradict him and answered, “Citizen Consul, if I 
show any promise, it is not for diplomacy, but for 
the military career.” This boldness surprised and dis- 
pleased him: being then all for peace and negotiations, 
it ran counter to his views for me; he resumed his 
severe aspect and in a blunt and abrupt manner rudely 
turning his back upon me, answered: “ Very well! 
you will have to wait for war.” 

As may be imagined, I came away from this 
audience with a very poor opinion of the kind feeling 
of the First Consul. But that was not all; we were 
descending the grand double staircase which the 
Swiss Guards defended on August 1oth, now no 
longer in existence, when Macdonald, who never 
missed an occasion for a joke, stopped short and 
turned round to compliment me on “my successful 
“début with General Bonaparte, and the speedy 
“promotion which such a favourable reception should 
“lead me to expect.” I replied that he was the cause 
of it, having against my wish introduced me as a junior 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 63 


attaché; but that I consoled myself for this misfortune 
because it kept me attached to his person. “ Not at 
all,” he answered, “I cannot keep you; the regulations 
only allow me three aides-de-camp, and you make 
the fourth.” Then becoming serious, as he saw me 
overwhelmed by this unexpected blow, he added: 
“Never mind; till something better turns up I will 
attach you to Beurnonville.” He was his friend, and 
I made no objection, but I felt annoyed because I 
saw in this an underhanded means of binding me toa 
diplomatic career which Beurnonville himself then 
preferred to that of arms. In this false position I 
employed my leisure in the studies necessary to my 
position, and in correcting my précis of the campaign 
of the Grisons which I had been urged to publish. 
On the other hand, finding myself once more amidst 
my old set, I tried to cultivate it at the same time as 
the new; but there had never been any real fusion; 
they were still two inimical camps and more antagon- 
istic than ever. 

In spite of the advances of Madame Bonaparte, the 
generous and conciliatory policy of the First Consul, 
and our own example, the old aristocracy, still rooted 
in the past and entrenched in hatred and disdain, only 
lived on its recollections, and fed itself with vain 
hopes. Everything was an obstacle, both in form and 
idea, everything jarred between the world that the 
Revolution had created and the society of the azczen 
régime. 

The latter was accustomed to look upon as paramount 
all the little refinements of good society, the exquisite 
politeness of conventional forms and ceremonies, and 
the urbanity, grace, and indefinable charm, whose 


64 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


distinctive and minute shades characterized the social 
code of the women of a former day. To these 
refined manners of the old society, the unformed 
and boorish ways of the men of the new were alien 
and intolerable; that alone, without the overturning of 
rank, power, and fortunes would have rendered any 
amalgamation impracticable. One should not therefore 
be astonished that this former society chose to include 
the First Consul, and the remarkable men with whom 
he was surrounded, in its general aversion for the 
revolutionaries whom he had brought to their bearings. 
The army itself was included. Its immortal deeds were 
in their eyes but ephemeral accidents or mere triumphs 
of brute force; a kind of barbaric, false, and illegitimate 
glory, and the honours acquired by this glory, a 
usurpation of ancient and imprescriptible rights. These 
were the very natural sentiments held by the remain- 
der of this cruelly decimated party, which, with no 
following, was still animated by this spirit of caste, 
the most persistent of all forms of party spirit on 
account of its close ties of society and family, its 
hereditary habits of domination and punctilious code 
of honour, its pride and its exclusive pretensions which 
had become a second nature made up of all those 
passions which act the most powerfully on the heart 
of man. 

This is not a criticism of the aristocracy; rather would 
it be its eulogy, provided it were not exclusive and 
as much as possible kept pace with the times. In fact 
what other body so old, so cruelly vanquished and 
dispersed, would have been able to remain as faithful 
and constant to its traditions, and present so inflexible 
a resistance to such great misfortunes! 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 65 


As for me, with the strong conviction that this 
resistance was as unjust as it was out of place, having 
broken from them and seeking a standpoint elsewhere 
I made a very bad choice: whether in my indignation 
at their rebuffs and at the reception of the First Consul, 
or from a spirit of military camaraderie, intensified 
by the republican hostility against Bonaparte of 
Macdonald and Moreau, under whom I had first seen 
service, I became almost a revolutionary. Neither the 
advice of my father, his nomination to the Legislative 
Assembly on January 31st, 1802, the lieutenant’s com- 
mission which I received on April 5th, nothing of this 
could at first win me over again. 

Paris was then full of various army staffs, impatient 
_of their inactivity and irritated by what they called the 
dictation and the usurpation of the First Consul. They 
dubbed as anti-revolutionary the measures in favour of 
the emzgrés and the re-establishment of Catholic worship. 
I listened to their outcry without sufficiently disap- 
proving its bad tendency; on April 8th, in Notre Dame 
I witnessed their indignation at the Ze Deum being 
sung for the Concordat which had been signed eight 
months before. I did not sufficiently protest on that 
occasion against the reply of Delmas to Bonaparte: 
“Yes, a fine monkery indeed! It is a pity that it was 
short of a million of men who got killed to destroy just 
what you are endeavouring to bring back again!” 

The brutal impertinences which several of the other 
generals permitted themselves to utter in the Tuileries 
and even within ear-shot of Bonaparte, displeased me 
to a certain extent, but did not sufficiently excite my 
disgust; I must admit also that in the cathedral my 


attitude was not the least irreverent of any; I even 
7 


66 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


remember, on thé return of the procession which 
passed by the Palais Royal near a group of officers 
amongst whom I was standing, the contemptuous airs 
with which we acknowledged the many salutations of 
the First Consul, and which certainly were not calculated 
to please him. 

In my position, and with the aim I had in view, all 
this was absurd. A coarse remark of Moreau had 
the effect of first opening my eyes to the false step 
which I had taken. Calling on him one morning in 
the Rue d’Anjou-St.-Honoré, when Grenier, Lecourbe, 
and he were conversing upon the French army in the 
time of Louis XV., I was listening to his remarks, 
ordinary as they were, (for his speech, like his manner, 
was very common,) as if they were oracles, when either 
forgetting or choosing to ignore my descent, he spoke 
in filthy and contemptuous terms of all the generals 
of the ancient regime without any exception. This 
insulting slight caused me to colour up. I was even 
then wearing mourning for my courageous grandfather, 
and retired immediately, all the more indignant because 
it was impossible for me to make any reply to this 
abusive brutality. 

I never saw this general again until curiosity led 
me to one of the cross-examinations which he was 
undergoing at the Temple, but though still very indig- 
nant with him, I had sufficient consideration for his 
disgrace not to let him perceive me. 

There was nothing of that kind to fear from Beur- 
nonville or Macdonald, still on my return home I could 
not help comparing this hostile scurrility with the 
grandeur of soul of Napoleon, who had taken advantage 
of the féte of July 14th, 1801, to collect the scattered 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 67 


remains of Turenne and celebrate their reception in 
the Invalides. His efforts to rehabilitate and to rally 
around him all the proscribed persons who had fallen 
victims to the revolutionary government were brought 
under my notice; but even more to the point, I was 
reminded that during my sojourn in Denmark, having 
learnt that my grandfather, from whom he had received 
his first commission, was living in great poverty, he 
alleviated the hardships of his last days by a pension, 
and when the old warrior went to the Tuileries to 
thank the First Consul, he was splendidly received, 
Bonaparte actually going to meet him. During their 
short interview he treated him with the utmost deference, 
going as far as the head of the staircase with him, 
and insisting that the guard should present arms and 
the drums beat, so that the full military honours 
might be given to him which were due to the then 
abolished rank of marshal! So great a contrast of 
petty meanness and ill-will with the generous consi- 
deration and marks of esteem shown to my grandfather 
and to our aristocratic renown, profoundly touched my 
wounded soul. My eyes were opened. I recognised 
in Bonaparte the true support I had been seeking, 
which seemed to present itself for the succour and 
possible rehabilitation of the remnant of the society 
of former days. Nevertheless, tired of my uselessness 
and feeling myself in disgrace with Napoleon for my 
anti-diplomatic prejudices, I had just demanded active 
work in my new rank in the 19th regiment of dragoons. 
commanded by Caulaincourt, when I learnt that the 
First Consul was furious against him on account of a 
plot which had been set on foot in this very regiment 
in relation to the Concordat. It was a false report, 


68 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


but had been received as a true one, in consequence 
of which, a squadron of this corps composed of the 
malcontents was on the point of being sent to San 
Domingo. 

At that juncture I received a note from Duroc dated 
the 4th Prairial of the year X (May 24th, 1802). He 
begged me to go to Malmaison at midday as the 
First Consul was anxious to see me. I was to be 
introduced by the aide-de-camp on duty, as Duroc was 
sorry that he was obliged to be absent and therefore 
could not undertake to present me himself. 

Certainly there was nothing in such a communication 
to alarm me, but young and vivid imaginations are 
subject to see things in a certain light and are not always 
remarkable for good sense. I fancied, insignificant as I 
was, that the coincidence of my request to enter the 19th 
regiment with the breaking out of the spirit of sedition 
in that regiment had drawn upon me the anger of 
Bonaparte. I therefore arrived at Malmaison with the 
conviction that I should be severely reprimanded to 
begin with, and then threatened or ordered to take 
my departure for San Domingo. My surprise may be 
imagined when on the contrary, after a truly paternal 
reception, I could perceive nought but the most fascinating 
benevolence imprinted on the features of this great 
conqueror which had appeared to me so formidable at the 
Tuileries; and when I heard his voice, which had seemed 
so rough, say in an accent as sweet as a caress, “ that 
“he was going to give me a mission in Spain in conse- 
“quence of the satisfactory reports that he had received 
“of me, that I should have ostensibly to deliver a letter 
“to the king from him and one to the ‘Prince de la 
“ Paix’ which should be done in secret, without General 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 69 


“St. Cyr, our ambassador, knowing anything about it, 
“these two individuals not being on friendly terms; but 
“for the rest, Citizen Talleyrand would give me all 
“necessary instructions.” Then walking up and down 
with me once or twice the length of the long study 
which looked upon the garden and the court-yard of 
the castle, and ran the entire width of the building, 
he added several kindly words as to the confidence he 
reposed in me, and sent me away with the same air 
of amiability with which he had received me. 

On my arrival at Malmaison I was like a hedge-hog, 
only thinking of defending myself; when I left I was 
astonished, charmed, and enthusiastic. The next day 
I was still more astonished when M. de Talleyrand, 
in giving me my instructions, my dispatches, and my 
passport presented me with 10,000 francs. I had never 
possessed more than my month’s pay, which had always 
been anticipated, in spite of the economy which my 
position imposed upon me. 

It was a far cry from Madrid to Copenhagen where 
I had been formerly. My sojourn in the one capital, 
however, was the road by which I reached the other. 
However great the distance and contrast of climate, 
it seemed to me less than the difference of character 
and habits in these two peoples. My journey too was 
full of incidents and accidents which I had no right 
to attribute to chance alone. We all knew very well 
that the esteem of the First Consul could only be won 
on two conditions; success and promptitude. I there- 
fore spared neither money nor health to accomplish my 
task quickly and well, but at my age and with my 
character the one was easier than the other. So that 
if I could not reproach myself on the score of speed, 


70 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


we shall see that as far as concerned the result of my 
mission, its success was due entirely to chance. 

I found Madrid almost deserted; the Court was at 
Aranjuez on the Tagus. I at once betook myself there 
to ‘call on General St. Cyr, “our? ambassadorn.” ahis 
general’s appearance was in harmony with his already 
famous military renown: tall, and manly, with a serious 
and noble countenance, and manners of a calm and 
imposing simplicity. He received me with cold dignity 
and presented me the next day to the King and the 
Queen. Their reception of me was gracious and even 
flattering on the part of the Queen; and on that of the 
King, although somewhat measured and studied as 
well as incisive, just what I should have expected 
from the good nature of a sportsman King who was, 
however, a chaste, pious, honest, and benevolent prince, 
though without any education, and entirely governed 
by his wife and by Godoi his favourite, an individual 
who was so obnoxious to the whole of Spain that, 
from that moment, he and the Queen sought refuge 
from his hatred in the powerful friendship of the 
First Consul. 

Godoi was not present at this audience, perhaps 
because St. Cyr was. I had not been informed that this 
general, of austere virtue, of inflexible principle, and 
most exemplary disinterestedness, except where mili- 
tary glory was concerned, detested the favourite. For 
the matter of that, my secret instructions might have 
told me as much; and Napoleon, who was more politic 
than his ambassador, was not, like him, above making 
use of this inevitable intermediary to attach Spain 
to the destinies of France. 

As for me, in haste to deliver Napoleon’s mysterious 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 7p 


letter to this “Prince of Peace,” * on the very next day I 
issued forth early from my lodgings, the first which, 
since my arrival in Spain, I had not found utterly 
intolerable. But by an unheard-of thoughtlessness, 
while wishing to accomplish discreetly this secret part 
of my mission, I chose the very hour, the very place, 
and garb which could not fail to attract attention to 
my proceedings. It would have been but a necessary 
precaution to go at night, wearing a dress coat, at the 
time when I might find the prince alone; instead of 
which it was in broad day, in my uniform, and at a 
public audience that I presented myself at this favourite’s 
residence. 

It was only when I found myself in a long gallery, 
in the midst of a crowd of applicants, that I became 
conscious of my oversight, but there was no time to 
repair it. The prince was absent. During a mortal 
half-hour of suspense I remained there as if caught in 
a trap, cursing my folly, and trying to slink unnoticed 
through the crowd; not daring to look anybody in 
the face and fearing that amongst these strangers 
some Frenchman might accost me, imagining that all 
eyes were fixed on the sorry figure which I cut, and 
on my unlucky uniform. However, what I had so ill 
begun I finished better, that is to say more fortunately 
than I deserved. Growing bolder, I slipped through 
the crowd to the door by which the prince must 
enter, and seeing a valet de chambre there, I decided 
on announcing who I was in a whisper to him, with 


* “The Treaty of Basle (July 22) which does credit to the good sense 
of Godoi, won for him the honorary title of ‘Prince of Peace’, the 
only title which he ever really deserved.” 

(Translator’s Note.) 


Ae MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


the result that as soon as Godoi arrivel, I was ushered 
alone into his presence. I remember that the room 
in which he received me was bare of furniture, but 
filled with a remarkable display of boots and shoes 
of all kinds. 

He was a man with a round, good-looking but 
insignificant face, tall and vigorous in stature for this 
country, but already tending to fatness. I found very 
little dignity in his manner, he gave me the kind of 
reception that one grants to the emissary of a patron. 
In his lavish civilities, he invited me to dine with him 
that very day, but being now very much alive to my 
imprudence, which was causing me inward qualms, I 
pointed out to him that such an invitation must reveal 
our interview, and that to keep the secret it would 
be much better that I should appear to be a perfect 
stranger to him. Understanding this necessity, he 
accepted my excuses. As there was no other issue 
from the room than the one by which I had entered, 
I was obliged to appear for the second time in the 
long audience chamber whence I made my escape by 
quickly losing myself in the crowd and edging towards 
the door; then taking a roundabout way to get home. 
I hastened to divest myself of the tell-tale uniform 
and helmet which I had so imprudently elected to 
wear. 

From that moment and during the whole week that 
I was waiting at Aranjuez for the answer to my dis- 
patches, anxious and aghast, I do not believe that 
Machiavelli himself would have thought of so many 
subterfuges and insidious ways and words by which I 
endeavoured to find out if our ambassador had any 
suspicion of my ill-planned visit; with this end in view 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 73 


I used to ask him, or ask others in his presence, a 
thousand questions about the appearance of this prince 
as if I had never seen him; I feigned only to know 
him through the general’s eyes, and to share all the 
aversion with which the favourite inspired him. In this 
constant state of anxiety, fearing any moment to find 
that the ambassador had learnt my unlucky interview, 
I used to come back again to make sure almost as 
soon as | had left him. This was very nearly the means 
by which it was found out. One day, while out walking 
together we met this object of my constant fear riding 
in his carriage: the enmity between the favourite and 
the general had then reached such a pitch that they 
were no longer even on bowing terms, when behold the 
prince, with his head out of the window, flourishing his 
hand to me in the most friendly manner! At this, St. 
Cyr, utterly astonished, eagerly wanted to know what 
it meant, and I, feigning even greater surprise than 
himself, pretended and affirmed that the salutation which 
I took care not to acknowledge, could not possibly be 
meant for me, inwardly cursing the prince the whole time. 

After all these hypocritical efforts on my part, my 
consternation can easily be imagined when St. Cyr the 
next day receiving me with much composure of manner, 
began to question me concerning a part of my instruc- 
tions, which, he said, I had kept secret from him. 
At these words, fancying that my duplicity had been 
unmasked and my mission defeated, I felt as if my 
blood was turning to water. But I managed to contain 
myself in spite of my extreme anxiety, affecting the 
most ingenuous astonishment, and begging him to 
explain himself, as if it were a matter of impossibility to 
know what he meant. It was lucky I did so, for in real- 


He MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


ity neither of us had understood the other. I perceived 
this as soon as he owned that he had suspected me of 
an understanding with Lucien Bonaparte, and of having 
been entrusted with secret communications for the 
secretary of this brother of the First Consul of whose 
presence at Aranjuez I was completely ignorant. Re- 
lieved of an immense burden, and delighted to find 
the ambassador so far from the right track, I felt so 
strong in being able to tell the truth, and denied 
this erroneous imputation with such convincing eagerness 
that St. Cyr restored me to his full confidence. 

It was thus that I atoned for the thoughtless act 
which I had committed, but my success cost me some- 
thing, nevertheless. I had been so preoccupied by it, 
that giving way too much to the discontented ambas- 
sador, so as to deceive him the better, I was led to 
neglect proper forms and ceremonies as he did: con- 
sequently he sent me off, not only without taking leave 
of the Prince but of the King himself, so that I did 
not receive the valuable present which, according to 
custom, he would have bestowed upon me. I gave this 
up without regret; but what was much worse was to 
have lost such an opportunity of studying this Court, 
of putting myself into communication with the favourite, 
of investing my journey with more importance, and of 
leaving behind me at Aranjuez a better impression of 
my tact. One of my instructions had thus cost me 
more than it need have done, but eager minds possess 
the great drawback that having once thrown themselves 
into an undertaking they are only able to see one 
side of it. 

But I had unconsciously given myself a great deal 
too much trouble. My usual good-luck did not need 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 7 


all these out-of-the-way precautions from which my 
conscience and my self-love still suffer. We are told that 
there is a Providence for drunkards, the same, I think, 
holds good as regards youth, which is an intoxication of 
another kind; my good-luck had served me to the 
extent that in this great audience of the “ Prince of 
Peace” I had not been noticed by any agents of our 
embassy; because the uniform which I had chosen so 
inopportunely to wear was fortunately a dragoon uni- 
form exactly resembling that of the same branch 
of the service in the Spanish army; so that with my 
oval face, and my dark hair and complexion, I had 
probably been taken for a Spanish officer. 

On my return, which was even more rapid than my 
journey out, I noticed among other things the sensation 
that the name of Bonaparte produced in this foreign 
country, the mere sound of it causing all obstacles to 
vanish, and all gates to fly open, even those of the 
Spanish custom-house! 

In its substance, and its results, my mission had been 
prosperous, and satisfactory to the First Consul. He asked 
me very few questions, which was again fortunate, for 
I had not made sufficient preparation by brief but well 
digested notes to be able to give my replies desirable 
weight. This should never be neglected in such cases, 
as a matter of conscience, for the greater good of the 
mission in the first place, and one’s own subsequently. 

However this may be, on the second occasion when 
I saw Napoleon, at one of those public audiences in 
the Tuileries which used to follow his frequent reviews: 
“ You have accomplished your mission well and quickly,” 
he said kindly; “take a holiday and don’t worry your- 
self; you shall yet make the tour of Europe!” 


76 MEMOIRS. OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


I had not long to wait, it is true, for a new mark 
of his good-will. But during that short time I was 
very near forfeiting it by the publication of my Précis 
of the campaign of the Grisons, my Copenhagen work. 
This précis, exact in detail, but defective as to style, 
was a glowing eulogy of Macdonald, in which Brune 
was not spared. As a matter of policy, I should not 
have done this, but it would have been ingratitude on 
my part had I allowed such a feeling to sway me, 
out of consideration for my new protector and at the 
expense of the first, so the book appeared. It came 
to my ears that it had been spoken of ill-naturedly 
to the First Consul, who exclaimed with some temper 
in presence of Roederer: “ What are these young en- 
thusiasts troubling their heads about? the only effect is 
to revive the quarrels between the generals!” Fortu- 
nately Roederer, who was a friend of my father’s, took 
my part; so highly praising both work and author 
that he restored me, as we shall see, to a higher place 
than I deserved in the esteem of Bonaparte. 


CHAPTER: UX: 


I AM NOMINATED ORDERLY OFFICER TO THE FIRST 
CONSUL. 


FTER having refused with scorn the offer of the 
chateau of St. Cloud as a public gift, to be his 
own private property, Napoleon spent six millions of 
francs in restoring it as the property of the nation, and 
had just taken up his abode there; but we still found 
it difficult to accustom ourselves to these successive 
appropriations of royal residences. The sonorous word 
Republic, under the dictatorship of the man of genius 
pleased our imaginations, and it was besides an ac- 
complished fact, cemented by victory, peace, and 
public prosperity; but a usurping king was extremely 
distasteful to us. Amongst the greater number this arose 
from pride and a spirit of independence, but as far as 
concerned myself, these feelings were complicated by 
remembrances which these signs or preliminaries of 
usurpation too directly wounded. I had sacrificed them 
to enrol myself with the nation, and it was repugnant 
to me to appear to abandon the cause of the whole to 
take the part of one. 
This was the state of things when, three months 
after my return from Spain, I received a short note 


from Duroc on October 7th, 1802, ordering me to go 
vr 


78 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


the next day to the chateau of St. Cloud at noon 
precisely. I do not remember how I learnt that this 
was with a view of attaching me to the special staff 
of the First Consul, but I remember very well that 
my first impulse was to hesitate to obey; but in spite 
of this swagger, which was a combination of royalist 
and republican feeling, the fact remains, that with my 
father’s support I found myself the next day at the 
hour named in the gallery of Mars at St. Cloud, where 
Duroc presented me to Bonaparte. The much too 
flattering words which that great man let fall on this 
occasion, while overwhelming me with astonishment, 
had the effect of attaching me once for all to his 
person. “Citizen Segur,” he said, in a loud voice, 
before a crowd of senators, tribunes, legislators and 
generals, “I have placed you on my private staff; 
“your duty will be to command my body guard. 
“You see the confidence which I place in you, you 
“will respond to it; your merit and your talents will 
“ensure you rapid promotion!” 

As much delighted as surprised by such a flattering 
reception, in my agitation I could only answer by a 
few words of gratitude and devotion, which Napoleon 
received with one of his indescribably gracious smiles 
continuing his way through the crowded assemblage 
of personages of more or less note, he went on to the 
gallery of the chapel in which he heard mass. Intoxi- 
cated with joy and gratified pride beyond the bounds 
of. expectation, and feeling “as if trod” on” an gr 
walked up and down these brilliant chambers as if 
taking possession of them, turning back and again 
stopping on the spot which even at this lapse of time 
I can still see before me, the spot where I had just 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 79 


listened to such expressions of esteem and regard, 
meditating upon them, and repeating them overa hundred 
times. It seemed to me as if they associated me, as 
if they identified me, with the renown of the Conqueror 
of Italy, of Egypt, and of France! I do not know 
what that autumn day was really like, but it has re- 
mained in my memory as the most beautiful, the most 
glorious day that ever shone upon me in my life. I 
was nevertheless abashed, and alarmed at the thought 
of the necessity of justifying the good opinion, however 
premature, of so great aman. Thus, when I returned 
to Paris to my father’s humble abode, it was only with 
blushes and under my breath, that in telling my story 
I could repeat these words of praise which must have 
appeared almost beyond belief. I considered myself 
then the sole usurper, feeling how unworthy I was 
of such praise. 

The routine of my new duties was not difficult. It 
consisted in parading in the courtyard of the Tuileries 
the relieving guard, in giving it the parole and coun- 
tersign, and in commanding and superintending for four- 
and-twenty hours every third day all the guards on duty. 
But my first contact with these picked troops was not 
such an easy matter. The guard of that day, men of 
gigantic stature and great vigour, in the full prime of 
life, struck me at once with the admiration which is 
inspired by the fame of irresistible troops, and with the 
veneration due to soldiers justly proud of ten years 
of hard work and victory. In the face of such men 
what was a life of twenty-two, a few missions, and 
two campaigns? It was not, I confess without a painful 
effort to overcome my justifiable modesty that, new 
to the work as I was, I appeared before their ranks 


80 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


and was able to assume that air of assurance and tone 
of authority which military command exacts. 

That first moment once over, the rest was easy 
enough; I had only to live amicably with the officers, 
and to control their mess, and it may be believed that 
I had no difficulty in acquiring their confidence and 
friendship. The difference of origin and education 
between us was no obstacle; and I might even remark, 
in spite of the war of classes which was then in its 
first heat, I have always felt that with some manage- 
ment, an illustrious name, instead of being a hindrance, 
becomes an advantage. ‘This, like all others, doubtless 
possessed its drawbacks, and it was necessary to 
forestall them. If indeed it be wise and prudent to win 
forgiveness from one’s equals for a superiority acquired 
by merit, it is still more necessary to prevent the 
jealousy which is inspired by a transmitted distinction 
only due to the accident of birth. The best means 
and the most natural were not to pride oneself upon 
it and to appear quite unmindful of it; but as those with 
whom one was brought into relation were constantly 
thinking of it themselves, if one displayed a kind and 
unaffected benevolence, and the evidence of an internal 
conviction that personal merit should always take 
precedence of other considerations, there remained but 
one difficulty to overcome; that which has been im- 
posed, from all time, by the possession of a more or less 
illustrious name, entailing the necessity of proving, 
that, without priding oneself foolishly upon it, one 
bears it worthily, and that one is deserving of the 
notice and the consideration which it attracts. 

Deeply imbued with these sentiments which were 
born with me, being transmitted from my father, I 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 81 


soon made friends with all around me. With regard 
to the modification of my opinions, and their conformity 
to my present position, which was a matter of duty, 
this transformation was naturally effected. Everyone 
knows how a picture may take different aspects according 
to the point of view from which one looks at it, and 
what a variety of opinions and impressions it produces. 
This influence, brought to bear upon politics, is still 
more powerful. -I was no longer contemplating the 
situation of public affairs and the great man who 
controlled them, from a humble and obscure corner, 
and through the medium of an atmosphere laden with 
envy and discontent, but from the very centre of 
attraction of this powerful planet which drew France 
and the whole of Europe in its wake in a trail of 
dazzling light. I soon felt myself absolutely under 
this domination. 

Besides, how prosperous had become my position, 
living an intoxicating life of delight in the midst of 
glorious trophies, under the eyes of a hero who was an 
object of continual admiration, in the very aureole of 
that glory which from henceforth should irradiate my 
path. Dreams, realities, all concurred to this end. No 
epoch was ever more splendid for Paris. What a 
happy and glorious time! That whole year has left 
on my memory the impression of a realization of the 
most brilliant Utopias, a spectacle of the finest galas, 
and that of a grand society restored to all good things 
by the presiding genius. 

The First Consul in his more personal surroundings 
had initiated many ingenious amusements, and given 
the signal for an almost universal joy. True, his 


household was divided into two parties, but, kept in 
8 


82 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


check by the firmness of their chief, they remained in 
the shade. These were on one hand the Beauharnais; 
on the other, Napoleon’s own family. The marriage 
of Louis Bonaparte with Hortense de Beauharnais on 
July 17th, 1802, appeared to have put an end to these 
differences, so that peace seemed to pervade everything, 
a domestic peace which was not one whit more durable 
than the other peaces of this epoch. But at first this 
alliance, and several other marriages amongst the 
younger members of Napoleon’s family, increased the 
general cheerful disposition of mind by the addition 
of their honeymoon happiness. The well-known attrac- 
tions and wit of the sisters of the First Consul, the 
many graces of Madame Bonaparte and her daughter, 
and the remarkable beauty of the young brides who 
had just been admitted into this fascinating circle, 
above all, the presence of a real hero, gave an 
indefinable charm and lustre to this new Court, as yet 
unfettered by etiquette, or any other tie than the 
former traditions of good society. 

Our morning amusements at Malmaison consisted 
of country-house diversions in which Napoleon used 
to take part, and in the evening of various games, and 
of conversations, sometimes light and sparkling, some- 
times profound and serious, of which I still find records 
in my note-book. The Revolution, philosophy, above all 
the East, were the favourite topics of the First Consul. 
How often, as night drew on, even the most youthful 
amongst these young women, losing all count of time, 
would fancy they could see what he was describing, 
under the charm of his admirable narratives so vividly 
coloured by a flow of bold and novel illustration, and his 
piquant and unexpected imagery. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 83 


One evening at St. Cloud, when he was describing 
the Desert, Egypt, and the defeat of the Mamelukes, 
seeing me hanging on his words, he stopped short; 
and taking up from the card-table, which he had just 
left, a silver marker—a medal representing the combat 
of the Pyramids—he said to me:“ You were not there 
in those days, young man.” “ Alas, no,” I answered. 
“Well,” said he, “take this and keep it as a remem- 
brance.” I need hardly say that I religiously did so, the 
proof of which will be found by my children after me. 

Such was his usual amenity; concerning which I 
remember that one day when our outbursts of laughter 
in the drawing-room were interrupting his work in the 
adjoining study, he just opened the door to complain 
that we were hindering him, with a gentle request 
that we should be a little less noisy. 

The other amusements of his household consisted 
in private theatricals, in which his adopted children 
and ourselves took part. He sometimes would encou- 
rage us by looking on at our rehearsals, which were 
superintended by the celebrated actors, Michaud, Molé, 
and Fleury. The performances took place at Malmaison, 
before a select party. They would be followed by 
concerts, of Italian songs principally, and often by little 
dances where there was no crowding or confusion, 
consisting, as they did, of three or four quadrille sets 
with plenty of space between each. He would himself 
dance gaily with us, and would ask for old-fashioned 
tunes, recalling his own youth. These delightful evenings 
used to end about midnight. 

This was the origin of those absurd reports that the 
First Consul used to take dancing lessons, or strike 
attitudes copied from various actors. His own per- 


84 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


sonal share in these diversions, on the contrary, would 
only last for a few minutes, after which, he would 
return to his work or to serious conversation. 

Our morning diversions at Malmaison were the first 
to come to an end, owing to the license which a dis- 
tinguished artiste introduced into them; the others 
which were always under proper restraint, went on 
during the autumn of 1802, and the following winter. 
They were hardly even interrupted by the journey of 
the First Consul to Rouen, to the field of the battle 
of Ivry and on to Havre, which he thenceforth called, 
the port of Paris. But after that, the multiplicity of 
affairs, and the serious complexion which they assumed 
by the hostile attitude once more taken up by England, 
rendered these pleasant recreations inopportune. Then 
ensued the gradual elevation of the First Consul and 
the increase of his ez¢owrage, which imposed stricter 
etiquette, greater differences of position, and diminished 
the informal charm of the domestic circle. 

Another incident cast some restraint on the freedom 
of our amusements. I am anticipating what occurred 
in 1803 so as not to come back upon these details. 
The preparations for an impending war had taken the 
First Consul to the sea-side in Belgium. During his 
absence the young people of his household had _ parti- 
cipated very innocently, but perhaps with too little 
circumspection, in the pleasures of the capital. Dinners, 
excursions into the country, and theatre-parties were 
the order of the day, even including certain thought- 
less visits to public balls and dancing places where 
the presence of young women of such high position 
could not fail to be remarked and talked of. It is 
true that these were but giddy escapades of school- 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 85 


girls who had only just come out of the hands of 
Madame Campan; but their husbands were away and 
they took fright at certain malicious reports, and how- 
ever false and exaggerated these may have been, 
they made an impression on the too suspicious dispo- 
sition of Louis Bonaparte. This was the beginning of 
his jealousy which existed for a long time without any 
real grounds. I am ignorant if the First Consul was 
worried with complaints on this subject, but as a matter 
of fact, on his return we were at once scattered abroad 
on various missions, and suddenly transformed from 
idlers into workers. 

A. little before the rupture of the Peace of Amiens, 
the First Consul had invoked the intervention of Alex- 
ander and Frederic; he sent General Duroc and myself 
into Prussia, at the same time as Colbert was dis- 
patched to St. Petersburg. We fell in with Colbert by... 
at night on the high road and there our meeting was 
marked by an adventure sufficiently comical for me to 
yield to the desire of relating it. 

This colonel and the officer who accompanied him 
had just been left on the highroad by their postilion 
who, according to German custom, had taken his 
horses out while he refreshed himself at the inn. After 
Waiting about a quarter of an hour, Colbert’s officer, 
in his impatience, sprang out of the carriage, and a 
few minutes after Colbert did the same. The two of 
them thus dashed into the inn, one on the heels of 
the other, in the darkness; and both in a towering rage 
happened to meet in a dark passage, swearing in such 
good German, that each took the other for the tardy 
postilion. Under this impression, cane in hand, and 
clutching one another by the collar, they belaboured 


86 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


each other with growing fury till the host and the real 
postilion rushing to the fray, candle in hand, our two 
friends, rather the worse for mutual blows, perceived 
their mistake a little too late. 

I now saw Berlin for the second time, but we only 
remained there three days. Duroc, being very explicit 
with the king, was successful; but doubtless following 
instructions, in the quarter-of-an-hour’s visit which we 
paid to one of the ministers whom we knew to be 
against us, his manner was so cold and silent that, 
fancying I was in his way, I got up after saying a 
few words and went to look out of the window. Never- 
theless, as the same silence continued with added 
significance I drew near again, upon which these two 
personages separated without a word, as they had begun. 

One of the remembrances of this short journey which 
still remains with me is the admiration which I felt for 
the beautiful and witty Queen of Prussia when I had 
the honour of being admitted alone to her presence, 
thanks to the memories which my father had left behind 
him. I can still see that princess reclining on a costly 
couch, a golden tripod by her side, and a veil of 
oriental purple lightly covering, but not concealing, her 
elegant and graceful figure. There was such harmonious 
sweetness in the tones of her voice, such winning and 
sympathetic fascination in her words, such grace and 
majesty in her demeanour that in my momentary 
confusion I almost fancied I was in presence of one 
of those enchanting apparitions depicted in the fabulous 
stories of ancient times. Could I foresee that three years 
later this very queen, in warlike garb, would be 
flying before our squadrons, and that at the close of 
the battle of Jena, I myself carried on by a last charge 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 87 


into the centre of Weimar, should have been very 
nearly taking her prisoner? 

Since then in 1840 during my last journey to 
Berlin, as envoy of the King of the French, when 
I was taken by M. de Humboldt to the mausoleum 
in the park of Potsdam consecrated to the memory 
of this princess, I recognised her at once in the beautiful 
marble monument representing her again in a recumbent 
position, but on her bed of death, from which my eyes 
long fixed on her image could not detach themselves 
without tears, 


CHAPTER X, 
THE EXECUTION OF THE DUC D’ENGHIEN. 


\ X TYHILST England in terror was exhausting her- 

self in preparations of defence, whilst Pitt 
clutched back the Prime Ministership, whilst Pichegru, 
escaped from exile, offered to betray us to him, 
and Dumouriez to hand over our former plans of 
invasion; our strongest forces, as if of their own accord, 
had all massed themselves on the sea-board. The hand 
which set these springs of war in movement did it with 
such ease and power, that at the same time it went 
on with the admirable work of administrative and ju- 
diciary regeneration in France, as if still in time of 
peace. On January 15th, 1804, Napoleon initiated the 
fifth year of his Consulate by presenting the Chambers 
with the Civil Code, then he fixed the public debt at 
fifty millions; he also founded the system of credit, 
and, by the institution of indirect taxation relieved landed 
property, which he also freed from incumbrances in 
spite of the war. 

Extending over a thousand details, both in.the museums 
and the civil and military libraries, the impulsion of 
the same hand is manifest in the active and intelligent 
care which re-established order in them, collecting from 


all parts the highest works of art, of science, and of 
88 


a a, 


MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 89 


letters, and stores of precious manuscripts, whilst a 
hundred engineers, exploring the whole of the French 
and the allied territory, carried our topographical know- 
ledge to a fresh degree of perfection; the marvellous 
and simultaneous execution of works of so varied a 
nature exalting to a higher pitch the enthusiasm of 
France. 

But what each one of us, intimate witnesses of Bona- 
parte’s private life, owes to his memory, (without deny- 


_ ing his ambition, which from that time was evidently 


tending towards supreme power), is to bear testimony 
to the grandeur of his thoughts, wholly and incessantly 
directed towards the public welfare; to his active 
benevolence; to the gentleness, economy, and simpli- 
city of his private life; the constancy of his attachments 
to those about him, and his calmness of mind in the 
midst of a thousand acts of treachery and the secret 
dangers by which his steps were surrounded. 

For each moment revealed some new perfidy, or 
disclosed some fresh trap set for his life. The more 
he devoted his genius to the welfare of France and 
the more grateful she showed herself, the more did the 
rancour of his enemies find vent in atrocious designs. 

It was at this time, during the autumn of 1803, at 
St. Cloud, that the charge of his personal safety de- 
volved almost entirely on myself. Amongst the officers 
who seconded me, those of the picked gendarmerie 
frequently confided to me their causes for anxiety. 
At one time it would be the discovery of a projected 
ambush on the road to Malmaison, when someone 
was to have sprung into the carriage of the First 


Consul. At another that of a mine tunnelled under 


part of the road to St. Cloud on some selected spot 


go MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


on his passage where a planned obstacle should arrest 
his course; another time our night rounds discovered 
an assassin standing on a block of marble placed near 
the lintel of the window of Napoleon’s study—the 
one which opened on the terrace of the Orangery—and 
leaning close up against the statue erected on this 
pedestal. 

One day amongst others, one of these officers who 
seemed rather more anxious than usual, asked me if 
I had not remarked through the window of the Salon 
de Mars, my usual post, a man broadly and strongly 
built, with eyes overhung by dark brows, with a 
sinister expression and a massive head sunk into his 
shoulders. This description answered to that of Georges 
Cadoudal. It was even said that this chief of con- 
spirators had come himself to reconnoitre on this side, 
whence an easy access could be obtained on the ground- 
floor to the apartments of the First Consul. I then 
remembered having seen a somewhat similar figure 
hanging about the place, but at that time the conspiracy 
of Cadoudal was rather a supposition than a certitude. 
It was not known then that on August 22nd, 1803, 
a vessel of the English royal navy had landed on our 
shores this Chouan general with some of his accom- 
plices; that in December, 1803, and in January, 1804, 
MM. de Riviere and de Polignac, Pichegru, and other 
plotters had followed on the steps of Georges; and 
that all of them, to the number of about forty, had 
met together and were concealed in the capital. 

England in her astonishment was for the first time 
alarmed on her own account. Her government, in its 
gtowing anxiety, after having armed her on all sides, 
had listened to every proposition which had been made 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. gi 


for her safety, even to the most unworthy of all, an 
assassination! Neither premeditation, nor payment of 
agents, nor preliminary steps, nothing, in fact, was 
wanting to the odium of so criminal a project: and 
this is how little by little it unfolded itself under our 
own eyes in all its naked horror. 

Whilst our émzgrés, with double pay from England, 
were awaiting secret orders from the English Cabinet 
and the Prince de Condé to assemble on the banks of 
the Rhine, where, by an unfortunate chance, the Duc 
d’Enghien happened to be (January 14th, 1804), other 
French exiles, most of whom had come from London 
or Brittany, to the number of about a hundred conspi- 
rators, were to find their way to Paris. The plan was 
that the latter, who were to have been paid with a 
million of English money that was seized on the person 
of Georges Cadoudal, the moving spirit of the plot, 
should disguise themselves in the uniforms of our Guard, 
take up their position on the road to St. Cloud or 
Malmaison, attack the First Consul in the midst of his 
escort of about a dozen men, and kill him in this ambush. 

This murder on the high road had been glorified 
by the name of combat, a gross subterfuge so blindly 
accepted by the Comte d’Artois that he sent his aides- 
de-camp to win their maiden spurs there, and even 
his second son, the Duc de Berry. The latter whom 
his youth rendered excusable, only escaped this crime 
and its consequences in the very town in which he 
was one day to be the victim of an equally odious 
crime, because, at the moment when he was landing 
at the foot of the cliff which his comrades had already 
ascended, a signal warned him that the plot had 
missed fire. 


Q2 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE=-CAMP 


As for results, the mistake had been made of reckon- 
ing on the French army. This error on the part of 
the exiles arose from the attitude and the ever-increasing 
hostile observations of Moreau and his party upon the 
First Consul. It had even been expected that this 
general would have been gained over to the plot, and 
have espoused the cause of the Pretender through 
Pichegru, one of the conspirators and a former friend 
of Moreau, who had been summoned from London to 
Paris by Georges Cadoudal. In this Georges and the 
Comte d’Artois had been misled by a report of Lajolois, 
a cashiered officer who was their go-between—the 
report of a spy, and therefore an exaggerated one. 
It is known, however, that Moreau’s only participation 
in this plot was his cognizance of it, not daring to 
take any steps himself, but leaving the work to others 
and waiting till they had got rid of the First Consul; to 
whose position as Chief of the Republic, he even had 
for a brief period the ridiculous pretension to aspire. 

But on the side of Napoleon, the fact of the existence 
of such close danger was unknown, in spite of the 
arrest of some Chouans whose actions had tended to 
arouse suspicion. It was only known that Drake, the 
English Minister in Bavaria, whose confidence had 
been gained by a secret agent of Bonaparte, was 
exciting our malcontents to profit by a crime which 
he seemed to have foreseen; and it was vainly con- 
jectured how it had come to pass that the approaching 
death of the First Consul and the restoration of the 
ancient dynasty were proclaimed throughout the whole 
of Europe. Thus passed the autumn of 1803. Even 
towards the end of January, 1804, when the winter 
had brought us back to Paris, there had been no 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 93 


change in the usual occupations of the First Consul. 

It was the beginning of February. Duroc, the 
governor of the palace was absent, and Caulaincourt 
had taken his place. I was on duty, and was fast 
asleep in my camp bed when about an hour after mid- 
night I was aroused by being roughly shaken; quickly 
sitting up, I perceived this general near me. “Get 
up,” he said: “The parole and the countersign 
“must be changed immediately, and the duties must 
“be carried out as if in presence of the enemy. You 
“understand me; there is not an instant to lose. ” 

I obeyed by immediately forming patrols and rounds 
in the chateau, in the garden, and the neighbourhood, 
arranging them in such a proportion that each sentry 
would have to reconnoitre at least three times in every 
minute. The duties were carried on in this manner for 
several weeks until the crisis was over. The reason of this 
alarm [I will proceed to show. We have seen that the 
First Consul, although only vaguely anxious up to this 
moment, had suspected a plot, and that several men 
who had laid themselves open to suspicion had been 
arrested. But it was not yet known that amongst 
these were five of the conspirators. During the night 
of January 8th, Napoleon who had awoke at two o’clock 
in the morning according to his habit, had asked for 
the various reports of his ministers. His lucky star 
threw out a ray upon the interrogatory of these five 
prisoners to which little importance had been attached, 
and as soon as his eyes fell upon it he was seized by 
a sudden inspiration, and ordered that judgment should 
take place. 

It would seem, however, that here his good fortune 
was dubious; the first two indeed had been acquitted, 


94 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


and they were really the most guilty. Two others 
who had been condemned merely as spies had sub- 
mitted to the death penalty without betraying their 
cause. The fifth of them, named Querelle, also con- 
demned to death, was on the point of carrying his 
secret with him into the next world, when he demanded 
a pardon in exchange for revelations which were made 
to Murat in the first instance, and which appeared most 
unlikely to be true. It must here be remembered that 
Fouche, who had become a senator, was no longer a 
minister; that his suppressed office had been merged in 
that of the minister of justice, and that the ill-governed 
police had been perfectly blind in the moment of 
danger. 

Querelle was only able to denounce the first land- 
ing, that of Georges six months before, on the cliff of 
Biville, which he had ascended like the smugglers by 
means of a rope secured to a projection in the cleft 
of the rocks, whence from one hiding-place to another, 
he had at last managed to get to Paris. But once 
set on the track, Napoleon did not lose it. He roused 
Réal, then head of the Police, he took council with 
Fouche, and he availed himself of the activity of Savary, 
the colonel of gendarmes of his guard, so that two 
other landings were soon disclosed. As for the names 
of the conspirators, the only one then revealed was that 
of Georges, nothing was known beyond their number, 
and that their aim was to assassinate the First Consul. 
This was the cause of the nocturnal alarm in the 
chateau of the Tuileries and the sudden precautions 
which I had been ordered to take. 

It was then that Danouville was seized at one of 
the halting places used by Georges and his accomplices 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON Jip 95 


and in desperation he hanged himself in the Temple. 
This suicide confirmed the gravity of the plot with- 
out throwing any light upon it, until on February 12th, 
Bouvet de l’Ozier, another conspirator who had just 
been arrested, endeavoured to strangle himself as 
Danouville had done. But Bouvet was succoured in 
time to be restored to life and misery, in his first 
cries involuntarily uttering the name of Pichegru; then, 
making up his mind as to what course to pursue, he 
brought a formal accusation against the implicated 
Moreau of having with his irresolute republican ambition, 
betrayed the royal cause to his own profit. 

It was thenceforth known that after Lajolois had 
been sent to England and had returned with Pichegru, 
a first interview between Georges, Pichegru, and Moreau 
had taken place on January 26th on the Boulevard of 
the Madeleine; then a second with Pichegru, at Mo- 
reau’s own residence, and finally a third at Chaillot, 
at the abode of Georges Cadoudal. The sorry part 
that Moreau played in this conspiracy may be suffi- 
ciently indicated by an exclamation of Pichegru: 
Pethabp b:...” he exclaimed as he left him, “is also 
“ambitious; he wants to reign, a man who would not 
“be able to govern France for twenty-four hours! ” 

It was in this wise also, that a second supreme cry 
of baffled disappointment revealed the reason why the 
conspiracy had not broken out at the proper time. Georges 
had said that day in a fit of discouragement when he no 
longer foresaw any favourable result to the Bourbons 
from the murder of the First Consul: “Usurper for 
“usurper, I prefer Bonaparte to this Moreau! He has 
“neither head nor heart!” Nevertheless it is certain 
that even then Georges, unaware that he had been 


g6 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


discovered, was persisting in the project to get rid of 
the First Consul. 

At the first news of such unexpected complicity, an 
exclamation of astonishment broke from Napoleon. 
“Moreau!” he cried. “What! Moreau in such a 
‘plot! He, thus to destroy himself, the only one 
“who had any chance against me! I have indeed a 
“lucky star!” However, he would not allow himself 
to be led away during the days of February 13th and 
14th, but refused to have him arrested. “No,” he 
replied; “he is a person of too much importance, I 
“have too great an interest in his culpability; public 
“opinion would fasten upon this; I must have other 
“proofs, above all that of Pichegru’s presence here.” 

It was not long before these were laid before him. 
Pichegru had a brother in Paris, an ex-monk, who 
having been suddenly sent for and interrogated, con- 
fessed in his agitation that he had just seen this general. 
Therefore, in the night of the 1th to the 15th a 
council was held and emissaries were dispatched to 
seize Moreau in his country-house. He was arrested 
on the 15th, about eight o’clock in the morning on the 
bridge of Charenton, as he was coming back from 
Grosbois, and was taken to the Temple. 

Here, in spite of the revolutionary horrors which 
surrounded the first steps of Napoleon, his relations 
with the immoral government of the Directorate; the 
Machiavellian necessities which the government of two 
conquered countries, the one corrupt, the other bar- 
barous, and that of France during five years had 
imposed upon this conqueror; finally, in spite of the 
frictions of contested authority, and the disgust so often 
inspired by the spectacle of human nature unveiled 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 97 


before our eyes, one is glad to recognise in the first 
impulse of this great man, the pure and noble emotions 
of his early youth, those of the generous conqueror of 
Mantua and Wurmser, those of his youthful heroism 
at once antique and chivalrous. 

Up to this time, Moreau had never shown him 
anything but repulsion and hostility. Oftentimes had 
this general met his advances with disdain. In his 
manner he affected not to recognise the authority of 
the First Consul; in his speech he described Bonaparte 
as a usurper, and although perhaps at first unjustly 
suspected of complicity with Pichegru, he was now for 
the second time discovered in the very act of associa- 
tion with this traitor. This appeared so revolting that 
in the Council a military commission was proposed 
and prompt and vigorous measures were enjoined. 
Either on the grounds of justice or policy, Napoleon 
opposed this, and no praise is due to him for doing 
so; but he did more: forgetting all his own griev- 
ances and compassionating so great a downfall, 
he held out a generous hand to his adversary. He 
did his best to draw him out of the pit by sending 
Régnier with a proposal that before the examination 
came off he should divulge everything to him alone in 
a secret interview which would put an end to the 
whole matter. 

But Régnier was very unfit for this delicate mission; 
he accomplished it coldly, was received in the same 
manner, and at once substituted the official interrogatory. 
Moreau, on his side, whether from want of heart or 
mediocrity of mind, did not seem to appreciate his 
position, nor the extent of his culpability, nor the use- 
lessness of his disavowals. The depositions of his accom- 

9 


98 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


plices had been kept from him. He entrenched himself 
in haughty denial, and Napoleon finally decided on 
leaving him to the hands of justice. 

On that day in the course of my duty, I followed 
the First Consul from his study to his Council of State, 
where acting on Régnier’s report, he had made up his 
mind no longer to have any reservations in the matter. 
On leaving the Council his agitation was extreme. I 
remember that as we walked back through the guard 
room, he turned towards me and exclaimed in a loud 
and singularly excited voice which the grenadiers could 
not fail to overhear: “Moreau! Moreau is of the plot. 
“Here are the proofs.” At the same time he showed 
me while waving them in the air the papers with 
which his hands were full. 

From that moment the facts were public property; 
Moreau, Georges, Pichegru, and their accomplices were 
accused of attempting the life of Napoleon, and of high 
treason against France. There followed a unanimous 
cry of indignation, and protestations of devotion from 
public bodies and the heads of the different arms of 
the service; but a part of the army, especially those 
staffs which had taken part in Moreau’s triumphs, 
persisted in believing in the jealous hatred of the 
First Consul rather than in the complicity of the victor 
of Hohenlinden. This opinion found an echo in the 
Chambers and amongst the people. 

Moreau being arrested, accused, given up to justice, 
and defended by public incredulity, it became more 
than ever necessary, in proof of the accusation, to get 
hold of his principal accomplices; yet neither Pichegru, 
nor Georges, nor Riviere and the Polignacs were 
seized. Thus compromised with the Revolution itself 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 99 


by the Counter-Revolution, Napoleon grew indignant, 
and decided on sparing no means to bring the truth 
before the eyes of the whole of France. The jury was 
then suspended, the harbouring of conspirators was 
declared to be a crime of high treason, and their 
denunciation was decreed under penalty of six years 
in fetters. The garrison and the whole of the guard 
were then simultaneously placed on a war footing; 
descriptions of suspects were given to them; all barriers 
by land and water rigidly closed were entrusted to 
their vigilant supervision, and Paris, completely sur- 
rounded by night and day with posts, bivouacs, and 
stationary or movable vedettes was given up to the 
strictest investigations of the police. 

Nevertheless, for twelve days longer all these pre- 
cautions were of no avail. Pichegru constantly followed 
and frequently tracked, yet found every night (and 
this even through the commiseration of Barbé-Marbois 
which was condoned later on by the generosity of the 
First Consul) some brief but safe refuge. It was only 
on February 28th that betrayed at last, and discovered 
asleep in a house of the Rue Chabannais by six picked 
gendarmes, he was taken. The struggle was severe, 
and was only ended by violent pressure on the most 
tender part of his body causing him to become 
unconscious. 

As for Georges Cadoudal, tracked as he was escaping 
in a vehicle on March gth about seven o’clock in the 
evening, pursued and captured in the square of Bussy, 
he killed two men before giving himself up to the 
populace who threw themselves upon him. He did 
not denounce anybody, but compromised his associates 
as well as himself by declaring frankly that he had 


100 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


come to Paris to attack and kill the First Consul. 

The scene was becoming more and more tragic. 
The conspirators, assassins and others, when they had 
been arrested had been found provided with passports, 
armed with daggers, and with English gold upon them. 
Another of them had escaped from justice by committing 
suicide. The principal conspirators, eager to free them- 
selves from the odious charge of an attempt at assas- 
sination by a confession of an attempt at counter 
revolution, declared unanimously that they had only 
been waiting for the presence of a prince of the 
Bourbon blood in Paris itself to put it into execution. 
Savary and his special gendarmes had been at their 
pains for nothing, when on the look-out for the landing 
of the prince on the cliff at Biville. On the other 
hand, double-faced spies had handed over to the First 
Consul the correspondence of those English residents 
most accessible to France. These, without exception, 
incited not only to revolution, but to the murder of 
Bonaparte. It was averred that Drake at Munich, 
Smith at Stuttgart, and Taylor at Hesse-Cassel were 
paying with the same English gold that had been 
given to the conspirators who were despatched from 
London to France, the armed exiles whom they were 
calling to our frontier. Lastly, in spite of his father’s 
advice and the entreaties of his most devoted officers, 
the Duc d’Enghien persisted in remaining in Ettenheim. 
From these headquarters, two hours march from France, 
he replied by letter: “ There where danger was, was the 
“post of honour for a Bourbon. ‘That, at this moment, 
“when the order of the Privy Council of His Brittanic 
“Majesty had summoned the emzgrés in retreat to the 
“banks of the Rhine, he could not, whatever might 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. IOI 


“happen, abandon these worthy and loyal defenders of 
“the French monarchy.” 

How could it be believed that the prince was ignor- 
ant of this plot which had been known to the public 
for over three weeks! He should have recognised the 
significance attached to his presence at the very gates 
of France, together with other exiles who were paid, 
armed, and assembled by the orders of England, and 
to what suspicions of complicity he thus rendered him- 
self liable! 

Each day, however, revealed to Napoleon more 
clearly the murderous intentions of his adversaries. 
He was enraged at seeing himself thus placed by them, 
as it were, beyond national law, outside the pale of 
European civilization and exposed to the most atrocious 
and perfidious attempts upon his life; his indignation 
increased with the arrest of the aides-de-camp of the 
Bourbons, who were associated with Georges, and the 
confessions of the latter brought it to fever heat. 

Being disappointed in his expectation of seizing the 
chief of the conspirators in Normandy, he turned his 
thoughts towards the Rhine. The confirmation of the 
presence of the Duc d’Enghien in Ettenheim was 
brought to him through a report of the gendarmerie 
which also included a General Thumery. This name 
pronounced German fashion (Thoumeriez) was the 
finishing stroke. For it caused him to believe that the 
prince was accompanied by Dumouriez. It was also 
said that the young Duke had already made several 
appearances in France; some said in Strasburg only, 
others, in Paris itself. 

On hearing this the First Consul was thoroughly 
exasperated. “What,” he cried, as Real entered, 


102 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“you did not tell me that the Duc d’Enghien was 
“only four leagues from my frontier! Am I a dog to 
“be killed in the street? Are my murderers sacred 
“beings? Why was I not warned that they are as- 
“sembling in Ettenheim? My very person is attacked. 
, It is time that I should give back blow for blow. 
“The head of the most guilty amongst them must atone 
Stor thse: 

Several days previously, his indignation had found 
vent in similar remarks, and he had decided on his 
course. Cambacérés overheard this last outburst and 


considered it a mere sudden fit of anger, but when 


he endeavoured to allay it, he was met with a crushing 
reply. Immediately after this, following upon a sitting 
of the Privy Council composed of the Grand Judge, 
Fouche, Talleyrand, and the two Consuls, whose 
objections were overruled, Caulaincourt, and Ordener 
were sent, the one into Strasburg, the other to seize 
the prince at Ettenheim, which was very unfitly desig- 
nated his headquarters. 

On March 16th half-an-hour after mid-night, Fririon, 
Ordener, and thirty dragoons of the 26th, and twenty- 
five gendarmes, crossed the Rhine at Rheinau, which 
is almost opposite Ettenheim. The gendarmes were 
commanded by Charlot, the head of their squadron, 
and it was he who two months later almost on the very 
spot, narrated to me the following details. 

Whey” had “left im reserve, on the left ‘bank three 
squadrons of dragoons of the 26th. During their rapid 
and silent march they passed through three sleeping 
villages without attracting any attention. Day was 
breaking when they arrived at the gate of Ettenheim. 
Ordener and his dragoons posted themselves there, 


a 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 103 


Charlot entered the town with his gendarmes. Pfers- 
dorf, one of his non-commissioned officers, who had 
gone down the day before to reconnoitre the place, 
acted as guide. They marched straight to the house 
which the prince was occupying, and without hesitation, 
according to a pre-arranged plan, the commandant and 
twenty gendarmes spread themselves out in the street 
under the windows, whilst four other gendarmes, 
scaling the garden wall, took up their positions in the 
yard on the other side of the building. The prince 
was living there with two aides-de-camp and eleven 
servants. He had 2,000,000, and 3 to 400,000 francs 
in a cash-box. His firearms were all at hand ready 
primed, there were sixty charges in all. 

Hardly was the place surrounded when, as the boots 
of the gendarmes resounded on the pavement and 
their weapons jingled, a window was opened and 
someone cast a rapid glance around, then the aide-de- 
camp, Grunstein, rushing in to the Duc d’Enghien, 
said to him: “You are surrounded.” Upon which the 
prince, jumping out of bed, seized a repeating rifle, and 
seeing through the window the French commandant 
pass by, he took aim at him and was on the point of 
firing. Twenty windows from which a volley could have 
been fired all looked out upon the street; there was 
only a step to take to fly and escape to the mountain; 
but at that decisive instant, Charlot drew himself up 
aua said in a loud voice: “Gentlemen, we are in 
“force; no resistance, it would be useless.” But the 
fatal shot would have been fired, thus beginning a 
conflict in which all the chances, according to the 
commandant himself, would have been against the 
assailants, when the prince’s evil genius caused Grun- 


104 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


stein to put his hand on the prince’s pistol and turn 
away his aim, saying: “The odds were too great,” 
and that he saw that any resistance would be vain. 
The same fatality led the duke to follow this fatal 
advice and allow himself to be disarmed. 

The door having been opened, they then took pos- 
session of the place, seizing all present with their 
arms. Charlot, however, when in presence of the duke 
demanded his name. “You should know it,” was the 
answer. The demand being repeated, he added, “Surely 
“you have the description of me?” The bailie * had 
just appeared upon the spot to whom the commandant 
repeated the same question, and this magistrate after a 
first refusal, ended by naming the prince. 

At this juncture cries of alarm were heard. The 
instructions given attached so much importance to the 
taking of Dumouriez, that at this sound, Charlot, under 
the guidance of Pfersdorf, left his illustrious and 
unfortunate prisoner, to hasten to the house which 
this general was reported to occupy. The first person 
whom he met was the grand master of the hunt at 
Baden whom he got rid of by evasive replies. But 
the alarm was growing and one of the inhabitants 
running in haste to the church, cried out “Fire! Fire!” 
and was on the point of ringing the alarm bell when 
the commandant perceiving him, caught him up, and 
striking him with his sword, made him desist from the 
attempt. A little further on a group of inhabitants, 
moved with indignation at the sight of armed French- 
men on their sovereign’s territory, were assembled; 
these he calmed by saying that “the exiles alone were 


* This Scottish word, and the office it denotes, is the exact equiva: 
lent of the French “bailli.”— 7ranslator’s Note. 





OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 105 


“wanted. The French Government was on friendly 
“terms with their prince of which they would shortly 
“be assured; their duty was to remain quiet.” He 
received no further interruption, but instead of Dumou- 
riez, he only seized the General Marquis de Thumery, 
whose ill-pronounced name had occasioned the mistake. 

On his return to the duke, he interrogated Grunstein, 
whom the prince, forgetful of himself, endeavoured to 
defend; saying to the commandant: ‘But for him, I 
“should have killed you; you owe your life to him.” 
Then no doubt regretting he had given himself up, he 
fell into a condition of silent melancholy; when his 
papers were being seized, he laid both hands over 
them saying: “Do not be surprised, sir; you see here 
“the correspondence of a Bourbon, of a prince of the 
“blood of Henry IV.” And perceiving that the letters 
of the Princesse de Rohan would not escape scrutiny, 
he added: “I hope you will be as discreet as possible 
“in all that does not concern the government.” When 
he had drunk this bitter cup to the dregs, and the 
gendarmes came to report their failure in the real 
object of their search; perceiving with surprise that 
it had been Dumouriez, he proceeded: “I give you 
“my word of honour that he is not here. It is possible 
“he may have been taken with his majesty’s instruc- 
“tions for me: but I have neither seen him nor do I 
“know where he is.” 

The unfortunate prince was then obliged to let 
himself be led away as a prisoner in the midst of our 
men, with Generals Thumery and Grunstein, Lieutenant 
Schmide, two abbés, a secretary and three servants. 
Thus escorted, he passed through Ettenheim on foot 
as far as the gate of the burg where he was received 


106 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


by Ordener and placed in a hastily harnessed labour- 
ers cart, when the journey back to the bank of the 
Rhine was proceeded with. Perceiving an encampment 
of cavalry on the way the prince exclaimed: “It looks 
“as if great importance is attached to my arrest. But 
“might is right, and you will be justified.” When 
crossing the river, he said in reply to Ordener: “ Why 
“should [have returned to France? To be a colonel there? 
“TI could have no existence but with the Austrians.” 
Then addressing commandant Charlot: “This éxpedi- 
“tion must have been conducted very secretly. It sur- 
“prises me that I was not forewarned, for I was beloved 
“at Ettenheim. To-night you would not have found 
“me. Only yesterday the Princess of R.... begged 
“me to depart, but I put it off, thinking that you would 
“not have time to arrive in the night. Iam sure that 
“she will come, and will want to follow me; she is very 
“much attached to me; treat her well.” 

Charlot added that two battalions and a battery 
were in position before Offenburg on the right bank 
of the Rhine; that Caulaincourt was in command of 
them; that he had orders to seize a Baroness de Reich, 
but that was all he knew. Long afterwards Caulain- 
court often declared his ignorance of what had been 
going on, a fact which was indeed quite in accordance 
with the absolute secrecy observed on similar occasions 
by the First Consul. We were always equally reserved 
amongst ourselves. We would suddenly leave our fami- 
lies without their having any idea as to our destination, 
and this was so thoroughly understood that no one 
ever dreamt of asking us any questions on the point. 

We found other troops under arms at New-Brisach. 
As soon as we had landed on the left bank, the prince 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 107 


was placed in a carriage, taken to Strasburg, and shut 
up in the citadel. 

He remained there two days under the charge of 
the head of the squadron, Charlot, without being 
entirely cut off from his companions in misfortune. 
This officer has affirmed to me that in the whole of 
the correspondence so unexpectedly seized, there was 
not a single word, or the least trace of any connivance 
of the prince in the Paris plot. The commandant could 
discover nothing further than the evident proof of a 
concerted meeting of exiles on the right bank of the 
Rhine, and of many communications with the left bank. 

This unhappy prince could hear the sound of the 
river flowing by the prison to which he had just been 
taken. This stream alone separated him from the 
honours due to his rank, his liberty, his safety, anda 
young and beautiful woman whom he loved, and to 
whom, the report ran, he had secretly united himself 
in spite of his family. The thought of all he had lost, 
which was yet so near, led him to attempt an effort 
to recover it. Finding himself alone with the com- 
mandant, he said: “Do you not feel any compunc- 
“tion in thus seizing one of your former princes ?”— 
“No, Sir,” answered the officer of the gendarmerie, 
“TI obey legitimate authority. ”—“ However,” retorted 
the prince, “there is the Rhine; it rests with you to 
“set me on the other side of it, and your fortune is 
“made.” But the commandant answered shortly that 
it was not his way of thinking, and ordered him to 
go into the next room. The prince then, resigning 
himself, added: “Shall I remain in prison for the 
“rest of my life? 1 much esteem Bonaparte, and look 
“upon him as a great man; but he is not a Bourbon, 


108 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“he has no right to reign over France, he ought to 
“give back the crown to my family.” 

The next day, however, he seemed to have a dark 
presentiment of the cruel fate which awaited him. “I 
“ought to have killed your husband,” he said to the 
wife of the commandant, “I had a right to do so. I 
“was defending my liberty; I shall probably repent of 
“not having done so.” As she exclaimed at this, he 
continued: “It would have been your fault; why not 
“have sent a note to warn me?”—“And how could I,” 
she answered, “ when I knew nothing about the matter?” 

The Duc d’Enghien was not mistaken: Madame 
de Rohan came in tears, begging permission to see 
him, and to be allowed to go to Paris, no doubt to 
throw herself at the feet of the First Consul; but the 
commandant sent her back to Schee, the Prefect, who 
told her that she would not see the prince and that 
she might not go beyond Saverne. Replying to a 
remark that was addressed to her, she said, “ Yes, I 
“know that there were many papers found upon him. ” 
Nevertheless, it must be again repeated, there was not 
a single one that related to the conspiracy of Georges. 

Amongst these documents the attention of the com- 
mandant had been attracted by a letter dated in 1792; 
This was from the Duke’s mother, a Bourbon princess 
of a curious turn of mind, who was then in favour of 
constitutional principles; in this letter she urged the 
young duke to return to France. “Why not have 
“listened to her?” he said to the prince.—‘* My obe- 
“dience,” he replied, “was not due to her but to the 
“king alone.” Then, irritated by these interrogatories, 
by his position and his bitter recollections, he gave 
way to anger for the first and only time, recalling 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 10g 


the murder of Louis XVI., of the Queen, and Madame 
Elizabeth, and cursed the French Revolution. With 
the exception of that one moment, the commandant 
often told me that during these two days, in the midst 
of such overwhelming misfortune, the prince had shown 
a politeness which was entirely free from pride though 
replete with dignity; that his whole demeanour inspired 
the greatest consideration, and kept persons at a re- 
spectful distance, and that at the most trying moments, 
even on being awoke to receive the announcement 
that he must leave the citadel, he maintained the same 
calm and firmness. To the very last when his three 
officers were sobbing as they wished him farewell, he 
spoke regretfully of leaving them: “My friends, ” 
said he, “I grieve that I can no longer do anything 
“to help your fortunes.” 

Such was, word for word, the commandant’s account 
of the first part of this woful catastrophe. He wound 
up with these words: “I put the prince in General 
Ordener’s carriage, and he left by post for Vincennes.” 

He arrived there March 2oth, at five o’clock in the 
afternoon; at midnight he was awoke and _ interrog- 
ated by d’Hautencourt, captain adjutant-major of the 
special gendarmerie. 

Two hours after midnight he appeared before a 
military commission, presided over by General Hulin. 
The audience was composed of an aide-de-camp of 
Murat, some officers and some gendarmes. The prince 
was without counsel. He related that he had spent 
two years at Ettenheim, staying on there out of love 
of sport. He frankly declared that he was ready to 
make war with France in concert with England; but 
he protested that “he had never had any relations 


Iio0 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“with Pichegru, and was glad of it, after all the in- 
“famous reports as to the way in which he wanted to 
“make use of him, if indeed they were true.” As in 
his first examination, he finished by demanding to 
communicate with the First Consul: both by word of 
mouth and by letter: “Being persuaded,” he said, 
“that Napoleon would not refuse, out of consideration 
“for his name, his rank, his way of thinking, and the 
“horror of his situation.” 

But the aide-de-camp, who was colonel of this special 
gendarmerie, had just assumed the command at Vin- 
cennes on the previous evening, and did not allow 
this request to reach the ears of the First Consul. He 
had presided over and hurried on the judgment; he 
now hastened its execution. This was left to d’Hauten- 
court, and the unfortunate prince was hurriedly led to 
the castle moat, where he was shot, and buried in a 
grave that had been already dug. 

Witnesses of the event assert, but I have not been 
able to verify the fact, that it was then about five 
o'clock, that the judgment had hardly been drawn up 
and signed, and that the judges were still deliberating 
whether they would send the letter of the prince to 
the First Consul, when Savary, breaking in upon them, 
transfixed them with horror by saying to Hulin: “ What 
“are. you, ‘doing sherer: “Alls: over; he nowlongers 
“exists, there is nothing more for you to do!” 

Then only were the castle gates opened and Murat’s 
aide-de-camp returned to his general, and found him 
still in bed at six o’clock in the morning. He expati- 
ated on the frank and manly replies of the prince in 
spite of the efforts of the judges to point out how 
dangerous they were, and then described the judg- 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. III 


ment and its immediate execution in spite of his 
request to be allowed to see the First Consul. The 
aide-de-camp himself told me that at this point he was 
interrupted by the sobs of Murat and the tearful ex- 
clamations of Caroline Bonaparte: “Ah, this is too 
“dreadful; leave off, say no more, you cause us too 
“much pain!” 

During this fateful night, I happened to be on duty 
at the Tuileries. The arrival of the prince was not then 
known in Paris, the report of his arrest beyond the 
Rhine only then being bruited about, although it 
was known to the Royalists. The first intimation I 
had had of it was by a chance expression of a 
woman of their party whom I met on the evening of 
March 20th. Feeling convinced, as I] was by many 
previous examples, of the magnanimity of the First 
Consul, I had replied, that if the fact was true, it was 
because he wanted to create an opportunity of retali- 
ating by an act of generosity, on the odious attempts 
that had been made against his life. Either doubting 
the truth of this fact, or preoccupied with other things, 
I returned to my post, with no further thought of the 
rumour which was quickly becoming public property. 
It was still unknown at the chateau of the Tuileries, 
but no one was then residing there, and in any case 
the greatest reserve was always maintained there. 

At nine o’clock the next morning as I was on my 
way to General Duroc to give an account of the 
twenty-four hours’ duty, I met on the grand stair- 
case the adjutant-major of the special gendarmerie. 
As usual he was coming to join me to hand in our 
reports together. Astonished at his livid pallor, at the 
distortion of his countenance, and the disorder of his 


TZ MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


dress, I asked him the reason of it. “Ah! s.27ohe 
cried with an oath, “there is nothing to wonder at 
“after the fearful night I have passed!”— “ Why, what 


“has happened then?” said I, and stopping short, he 
retorted: “A thunder-bolt has fallen during the night.” 

This exclamation alarmed without enlightening me; 
but when I entered the reception room, General Duroc 
not yet being down, I found Hulin, very red in the 
face and very excited, pacing up and down in the 
greatest agitation. This colonel of the guard was a 
tall and very stout man; soon he was joined by the ad- 
jutant-major, when I overheard Hulin exclaim several 
times: “He did quite “right it is) better’ to) kill} the 
devil than to let the devil kill you.” I then felt con- 
vinced that a catastrophe had happened. 

Not knowing of the prince’s arrival at Vincennes, I 
could hardly have conjectured that it concerned him. 
Nevertheless, in my anxiety, drawing near to Haulin, 
I hazarded the remark: “ They say the Duc d’Enghien 
“is arrested!”— “Yes! and dead into the bargain!” 
he answered abruptly. Duroc having then come in, 
we drew round him, and after having given in my 
report, in reply to a brief and almost inaudible inter- 
rogation, d’Hautencourt answered: “ He was shot in 
“the moat at three o’clock in the morning,” then drawing 
from his pocket a little parcel a few inches square, 
soiled and crushed up as if it had been carried about 
a long time, the adjutant-major added: “ When the last 
“moment had come, he drew from his bosom this paper 
“and begged me toigive it to the primcess. “Itusithe 
“hair of........!” these last words were said with an 
affectation of carelessness which froze me with horror 
from head to foot. I felt myself growing pale; the 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 11S 


ground seemed giving way beneath me. It being then 
time for me to go off duty, I retired in unspeakable grief. 

And yet I knew this adjutant-major well for a 
worthy and excellent man, usually humane and gentle, 
but either through being taken out of his sphere, or feeling 
biassed by his colonel in his dependent position, what 
a sudden transformation was here! This is the danger 
which exceptional circumstances create for those whom 
a beginning of dearly-bought prosperity keeps in a 
state of subservience, lacking the superior associations 
whose verdict they might have stood in fear of, 
accustomed to obedience as a duty, and whose obscur- 
ity obviates the necessity of having to reckon with 
history. Even amongst men brought up in the midst 
of social safeguards such as these men did not possess, 
does not history show us many for whom under similar 
circumstances these safeguards were all too insufficient? 
Add to these considerations, which apply equally to the 
judges and to those who put the judgment into execu- 
tion, surprise, haste, the habit of obedience, an appearance 
of legality, and that fatal mistake as to the complicity 
of the prince in Georges’s odious plot, a mistake which 
was confirmed by the exclamation of Hulin which I 
have just repeated. 

Unhappy prince! His warlike heroism and chivalrous 
youth should have rendered impossible even the bare 
suspicion that he could be an accomplice in the con- 
templated assassination of Bonaparte!—Yet innocent of 
this crime, he had been its victim. 

On my arrival home, hardly knowing how I got there, 
so absorbed and dismayed was I by this tragic event, 
I threw myself into a chair at the foot of my father’s 
bed, saying: “ The Duc d’Enghien has been shot during 


Io 


114 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“the night. We have returned to the horrors of ’93. 
“The hand which drew us out of them now thrusts us 
“back. Is it possible to remain any longer associated 
“with such deeds?” My father said nothing; he was 
completely dumbfounded and could not believe me. | 
related to him the events which I have just narrated, 
and in his horror, he, like myself, made no allowance 
for the causes that had provoked this vengeance. He 
was also of opinion that after this sanguinary beginning, 
no supreme ruler would be sufficiently master of him- 
self to stop short in such a baneful course, and that 
one ought indubitably to dissever oneself from it. 

It was, however, too important a step to decide on 
without knowing thoroughly all that could have led 
to the cruel deed. My father, who was then a coun- 
cillor of State could better than any other, obtain such 
information. During the three following days which 
he devoted to this object, shut up in my room, deplor- 
ing that fatal night, and perpetually haunted by the 
horrible spectacle which was ever before my eyes, 
I remained completely crushed! Justly proud up to that 
moment, of the great man whom I served, I had made 
a complete hero of him; I felt convinced that no reason, 
whether of policy, of personal security, or of vengeance, 
would prevail against the generosity of his character, 
and the details which I shall proceed to give—the 
fruits of careful research on my part—will show that I 
was not entirely mistaken, and that the generosity 
which had been obscured by a first movement of anger, 
would regain its sway when too late, and when a fatal 
chance had rendered it powerless to be of any avail. 

Nevertheless, the first news which my father was able 
to bring us, extenuated but slightly the impression 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. eS 


which the too premeditated violence of this cruel cow/ 
d'état had produced upon us. After the instructions 
given to Ordener, Napoleon had been afraid of him- 
self; having withdrawn to Malmaison during the whole 
of the following week, he had turned a deaf ear to 
the intercessions of Josephine; and although he knew 
that there was nothing in the papers seized upon the 
prince in any way implicating him in the murderous 
attempt, he none the less persevered in his own angry 
conviction. In vain had Murat, then commandant of 
Paris, declined to obey his orders of March 2oth and 
refused to take any part in this act of vengeance; 
with unmoved inflexibility he had taken all upon him- 
self, he had even dictated every detail and signed it 
himself—the names of the military judges, the order 
to pronounce judgment at a single sitting, and to exe- 
cute it at once, whatever it might be. Finally, he had 
selected, to ensure the following-out of his instructions, 
the only one amongst his aides-de-camp whom he knew 
to be capable of unhesitatingly obeying such orders. 
It was said, it is true, that he had thought better of 
it that evening, and had despatched orders to Réal to 
submit the unfortunate prince to an examination which 
would doubtless have saved him; and that this council- 
lor of State, shut up in his own room, had only received 
the order at five o’clock in the morning, when the 
execution had already taken place. This extenuating 
fact was not only true but altogether probable; indeed 
I had myself one evening, just a little before this sad 
time, been the bearer from St. Cloud to Paris of urgent 
orders for General Berthier, which I was only able to 
deliver into the minister’s own hand after a night jour- 
ney of eight leagues, having to drag him out from an 


1G MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


almost inaccessible retreat. Reéal, during that unhappy 
night had apparently shut himself up in the saine 
manner. Our days and even our nights were so over- 
whelmed with work that it was sometimes necessary, 
for the sake of breathing time, to steal a few hours 
rest from the service of the First Consul. 

Thus it was quite true that a blessed feeling of 
remorse had moved the soul of Napoleon at the last 
moment. We must therefore trust, for the honour of 
him who was entrusted with this message of succour, 
that he was unaware of its full importance ; otherwise 
he would surely have religiously fulfilled his mission 
to Réal, as I did mine to Berthier, in a case when 
promptitude was not so indispensable. 

Another fact attests the truth of this. When Savary 
arrived at Malmaison about seven o’clock in the morning 
with his terrible story, the First Consul, interrupting 
him as soon as he had begun to speak, asked: “ Had 
he not seen Réal?” On his reply that he had just met 
him at the barrier, going to Vincennes, the First Consul 
fell into a sombre and silent reverie broken by such 
evident agitation, that for a long time neither his 
secretary nor his aide-de-camp dared to interrupt it. 
Doubtless in his eyes this was a decision of fate, which 
he resolved upon accepting, and afterwards with Cau- 
laincourt, Fontanes and others, both his words and his 
silence were in conformity with this belief. 

I can also give the substance of another narrative 
of this disastrous event which I held from King Joseph, 
whom, as will be seen, I attended eighteen months 
later as aide-de-camp at the time of the conquest of the 
kingdom of Naples. Réal’s narrative is included in 
it; it too positively confirms all that I myself knew, 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOI.EON I. 117 


heard, and saw, it is attested to by too many witnesses, 
most of whom I knew, for the possibility of any doubt 
as to its truth. 

On the eve of the fatal deed which had been but too 
truly commanded by him in the first instance, the First 
Consul fell back into a state of indecision. He was 
hesitating between many urgent entreaties, and the 
advice of a minister who was the only one believed 
to have been opposed to them, when Joseph, intervening, 
tried to recall him to his rdle of moderator, of centre 
of attraction, ‘of key-stone of the arch’ between all 
parties; then reminding him that it was entirely due 
to the encouragement of his victim’s father that he had 
chosen the artillery and refused the navy, (a choice of 
such influence upon his destiny) he did not leave him 
till he felt sure of having won him over to clemency. 
The result of this was the counter-order which was 
that very evening dispatched to Réal, as Réal himself 
declared, but an unhappy fatality had ordained that 
this councillor of State, having been twice awoke 
during that cruel night to receive missives of no im- 
portance, had impatiently locked himself up in his 
room, and only opened the letter of the First Consul 
several hours after it had been received, towards five 
o'clock in the morning at the very moment when the 
murder was being committed; so that, as we all knew 
later, when his carriage crossed that of Savary at the 
barrier of Vincennes, he returned horror-struck at the 
irreparable consequences of his unfortunate slumber. 
That was why, when Josephine cried out in horror: 
“Alas, my friend what have you done!” Napoleon 
replied, “The wretches were too quick!” and on the 
other hand, when alone with Joseph, he allowed 


118 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


himself to indulge in a furious burst of anger against 
Réal, whom he unjustly accused, on account of his 
revolutionary antecedents, of having purposely delayed 
to obey his counter-instructions. Then, recovering 
himself, he said to his brother: “ After all, one must 
“make the best of things. That very likely if he had 
“been assassinated by the agents of the prince’s 
“family, the prince would have been the first to show 
“himself in France, sword in hand, to profit by it. That 
“it was for him henceforth to bear the responsibility of 
“the event; that to throw it upon others, even justly, 
“would too much resemble an act of cowardice for him 
“ever to allow himself to be suspected of the weakness.” 

In the course of the first Council of State which 
soon followed this catastrophe, my father heard the 
First Consul after a violent tirade against rumours, and 
the modern violations of sanctuary, say: “That he knew 
“how to make France respected. That he respected 
“public opinion only so long as it was not founded 
“upon error. That he despised its caprices and that when 
“it swerved from the right way, all governing men 
“like himself, instead of following it, should enlighten it, 
“that he would have commanded the judgment and 
“public execution of the Duc d’Enghien, who was guilty 
“of conniving with the agents of England, of taking 
“arms against France, of secret understandings with our 
“frontier departments, with the object of inciting revolt, 
“and lastly of complicity in the plot which had been 
“laid against his life, if he had not feared giving the 
“partisans of this prince the opportunity of compassing 
“their own destruction; that Riviere and the Polignacs 
“had not been seized amongst these, but in obscure 
“hiding-places; that besides, the Royalists were quiet; 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 11G 


“that he asked nothing more from them; that anyone 
“was at liberty to cherish regret; that those who pre- 
“tended to fear general proscriptions did not believe in 
“them; but that as for himself, he would not spare any 
“guilty persons. ” 

All these counts of accusation which he heaped up 
upon his victim were true, except the last, that of 
complicity with Georges Cadoudal, the only fact which 
could have explained, without justifying, so cruel a 
vengeance. Bonaparte may have believed in this com- 
plicity, but it never really existed. The prince probably 
was cognizant of the plot through public rumour, but 
at that time it had missed fire, and the prolongation of 
his stay within reach of the Rhine was thus devoid of 
any motive to justify the suspicion to which he fell a 
victim. 

It was evident therefore that, irritated by the succes- 
sion of attempts against his life, the First Consul had 
resolved to put an end to them by a decisive blow. 
If any excuse could be found for such a barbarous 
act, it was in his real conviction, through a fatal con- 
currence of circumstances, that he was obeying political 
necessity, the right of personal defence, and that he was 
only punishing a conspirator; a fatal error, proving 
more than ever, that one should never constitute one- 
self judge of one’s own cause, and that protectionary 
measures should be respected, so as not to run the risk 
of defending oneself against an attempted crime by 
the commission of another crime. 

Let us trust that the feeling of remorse which caused 
him to send Réal to delay the execution of his first 
decision may have extenuated its horror in the eyes 
of God, as well as in the eyes of man. 


120 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


Thus also should history judge it. As for us, in our 
ignorance at the time, the accusation brought against 
this unhappy prince seemed likely to be only too true. 
Looked at in this light, however fearful may have been 
the blow struck at Vincennes, was our much provoked 
chief the only, or the most guilty, one? It was, neverthe- 
less another circumstance which influenced our decision. 

On one side we knew that Caulaincourt was a butt 
for royalist animosity. They accused him of, and held 
him responsible for, the arrest, the judgment, and the 
execution, although he not only did not know of it, 
but was away from Paris at the time. The denials of 
his friends, his own despair, his fainting fit at the First 
Consul’s when he learnt the murder, and the bitter 
violence of the reproaches which he addressed to Bo- 
naparte when restored to consciousness by Bonaparte’s 
own efforts, were not enough for them. They de- 
manded his resignation and exacted it in proof of denial 
of his participation in this sanguinary action. 

On the other hand, my father noticed that several ex- 
Jacobins who had united together were triumphantly 
applauding this first retrograde step that Napoleon had 
taken in their own atrocious path. What were we to do 
in the midst of these two inimical parties? To satisfy the 
one, must we give up to the other, the ground which 
had been so fortunately taken back from the Terror- 
ists? It was in Bonaparte alone that we had trusted 
to draw France and ourselves out of the revolution- 
ary abyss. Up to that moment this hope had been 
magnificently realized. Four years of benefits, and of 
an admirably generous and restorative administration, 
had attached us to his fortunes; should we then, at his 
first step in a contrary direction, however deplorable 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. L21 


it may have been, abandon everything? Should we, 
by being the first to draw back from him, give him 
up to, and even push him into the hands of the most 
dangerous of these parties, whose influence had been 
combated by our co-operation? 

Why should we pre-suppose a sanguinary future? 
Fear alone could have drawn the First Consul into 
such a course; and we know that after the explosion 
of the infernal machine of the Royalists on the 3rd 
Nivose, interrupting one of his councillors, who 
had asked: “Are you not afraid, Citizen-Consul? ” —he 
had answered: “JI, afraid! Ah! If I were afraid, it 
“would be a bad day for France.” 

This political crime might therefore remain a soli- 
tary one, and as our future and that of the whole 
otf the healthy-minded party in France depended on 
the First Consul, why should we give way to despon- 
dency? His hitherto unsullied rectitude of conduct 
had, it is true, suffered a lapse; he had slipped away 
from us, but that was all the more reason why we 
should strengthen our grip and endeavour to regain the 
ground that had been lost. If he played us false again, 
we could then take counsel together as to our future 
course. 

Such was the exact direction to which our thoughts 
tended during many days of anxiety, sadness, and 
discouragement, but having once decided on a line of 
action, I urged my father to make an attempt to 
restore Caulaincourt’s courage and that of our friends 
which had no doubt been shaken like our own. 
On the following Sunday (I think it was March 25th), 
we were all to meet at the Tuileries, and we promised 
each other that, while not attempting to hide our 


122 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


sorrowful reprobation, we would endeavour to conform 
our words and action to the resolution which we had 
taken. 

There was a considerable gathering of all the autho- 
rities that day at the palace. We had only been able 
to communicate our own feelings to a few friends, and 
yet without any pre-arrangement we were all in complete 
accord. Caulaincourt maintained a firm and steadfast 
demeanour, but, with his drawn mouth, his jaundiced 
complexion, and his contracted features, he seemed to 
have aged by ten years, and was indeed hardly 
recognisable. He became even paler when I pressed 
his hand, but remained motionless as a statue. 

A. little further on, I met the same d’Hautencourt 
whose remarks to Duroc had offered so cruel a contrast 
to his agitated manner. In reply to my questions he said 
that the last words of the unhappy prince had been: 
“T must die then at the hand of Frenchmen!” Having 
asked him one last question which I could hardly 
enunciate: “He died as a hero,” was the reply. 

At this juncture Bonaparte re-appeared amongst us, 
passing through the silent crowd who made way for 
him on his road to the chapel. There was no change 
in the expression of his countenance. During the 
prayers of the mass, |] watched him with redoubled 
attention; and there, before God, while I seemed to 
see the bleeding victim of a hurried death finding a 
refuge before the supreme tribunal, in the anguish of 
my heart, I waited for some sign of remorse, or at 
least of regret, to manifest itself on the features of the 
author of the cruel deed; whatever, however, may have 
been his inward feeling, not a trace of it was visible ; 
he remained perfectly calm, and, through my own 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 128 


tears, his countenance appeared to me as that of a 
severe and impassive judge. 

After thus seeing him before God, I wanted to see 
him before men, and to this end I attached myself to 
his steps during the audience which followed. His 
manner was at times calm though constrained, at others 
gloomy, but rather more accessible than was his wont. 
He walked slowly up and down and from side to side 
of the large rooms with a more measured step than 
usual, appearing desirous of observing in his turn, 
stopping every few steps, and allowing persons to 
gather around while he addressed a few words to 
each. All he said had reference directly or indirectly 
to the night of the 20th to the 21st of March. He 
was evidently sounding opinions, expecting or even 
provoking replies which he hoped would be of a satis- 
factory nature. He only got one meant to be flatter- 
ing, but so clumsily expressed that he cut it short by 
turning his back on the speaker. It was a kind of 
involuntary accusation of having repaid an attempt at 
murder by a murder. The various groups which 
formed around him from time to time, listened to him 
with watchful curiosity, in a dejected and embarrassed 
attitude, and for the most part in a silence of evident 
disapproval. 

His haughty and severe demeanour, though at first 
inclined to expand, became more and more sombre 
and reserved. Withdrawing into himself, he tried 
to convince himself that political necessity had absolved 
him; that excepting the manner of the deed, in all the 
rest he had right on his side; which was false. 
However, he had attained his aim, as from that moment 
there was an end to all royalist conspiracies. 


124 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


He retired abruptly from this audience greatly dis- 
satisfied, but inflexible; without appearing or being 
any more disturbed by the unanimous disapproval 
than he was on other occasions hereafter when the 
subject was introduced, and in his last moments at 
Saint Helena. 

But the horrors of this terrible drama had not yet 
reached their termination. Between eleven o’clock and 
midnight on April 5th, Pichegru added a fourth suicide 
to them. It was that of one of Napoleon’s former profes- 
sors at the College of Brienne; and whether on account 
of this connection, or because at that time he was 
less irritated against those of his enemies to whom the 
Revolution had given birth than to those of the old 
order, the First Consul had promised him not only an 
unconditional pardon, but complete rehabilitation and 
the governorship of Cayenne. The unfortunate man 
however, either in weariness or utter disgust of a 
life which treachery had disgraced, after some hesita- 
tion, preferred to make an end of it. He freed himself 
from the shame of living or the fear of yet meeting 
with his just deserts, by slowly strangling himself in 
his bed, by means of a stick which he had twisted into 
his silk necktie. He was thus found the next morning 
with a volume of Seneca lying by him, open at the 
page describing the suicide of Cato. 

Six weeks later, Fate, which was then all in Bona- 
parte’s favour, for the second time led one of Napoleon’s 
bitterest enemies to this very prison in the person of 
Captain Wright, the Englishman who had landed 
Pichegru and his accomplices on our shores. 

At last the preliminary inquiry of the great trial was 
concluded. Moreau had persisted in protesting his inno- 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 125 


cence during forty-four days till he was confronted with 
three of his accomplices, and the confession of his interview 
with Georges and Pichegru was dragged from him. 

Forty-six accused appeared before justice on June 
10th. They were tried under every condition that 
could be favourable to them, before a numerous public, 
and in the midst of eager and even seditious manifes- 
tions on the part of military men of all grades who 
were ardent partisans of Moreau. In spite of his 
flagrant culpability the judges hesitated, and, at last, 
some other influence being brought to bear, or with 
a show of equity they adopted half measures. Moreau 
was found guilty, but excusable, and condemned 
only to two years’ imprisonment. Four of the others, 
whether justly or through pity, were awarded the same 
sentence. Twenty-one were acquitted, and twenty 
condemned to death. 

We were then at St. Cloud. On learning the sentence, 
the generals about the First Consul gave vent to their 
rage in furious exclamations that it was a denial of 
justice, an act of revolt. There was even talk of proceed- 
ing to some extraordinary measures against the con- 
demned, the judges, and even against Paris itself, which 
was declared unworthy to be a capital and the residence 
of the head of the government. They would have desired 
Moreau’s condemnation to death, knowing very well, 
it is true, that Napoleon would have commuted it, but 
indignant that the prevaricating tribunal should have 
robbed him of the opportunity of doing so. 

As for Napoleon, however angry he may have felt, 
he managed to contain himself. He agreed with Moreau 
to purchase his estates which were considerable, and 
insisted on his exile to America. 


126 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


He pardoned eight out of the twenty who had been 
condemned to death. We even noticed that when 
granting the life of Armand de Polignac to the 
prayers of Madame d’Andlau and this conspirator’s 
wife, he was much moved, and mingled his tears 
with theirs. 

One of the consequences of this plot was, together 
With the prorogation of special tribunals, the re-establish- 
ment of Fouche as Minister of Police. Napoleon dis- 
trusted him: he set a watch on him and increased the 
counter police. One of these offices was entrusted to 
his aide-de-camp, Lavalette, who was also to make 
himself acquainted with the contents of letters. He 
told my father that he learnt more through these 
agencies, and especially through the cz7és than by any 
other medium, and added with regard to Fouché, that 
he had reinstated him not so much to know everything 
that was going on, as to have the appearance of 
knowing everything. 

I meant to pursue this tragic event to the bitter 
end. But it had already brought in its train another 
of the highest importance. For the space of four months, 
that is to say from the commencement of February 
1804, and on the first outbreak of this conspiracy, many 
addresses had openly demanded the re-establishment 
of the throne and the foundation of a new dynasty. 
On March 27, the entire Senate in acknowledging 
reports of the criminal correspondence with the English 
agents of the Lower Rhine, replied to Bonaparte: “It 
“was you who drew us out of the chaos of the past; 
“you cause us to bless the benefits of the present; 
“protect us against the future. Great man, finish your - 
“work, make it as immortal as your own glory.” 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 27 


The reply of the First Consul to this official advance, 
was measured: “He would consider it,” he said. 
Consequently the State Council was consulted on the 
establishment of a hereditary government. Twenty 
out of twenty-seven councillors approved of it. But as 
they had not agreed about the guarantees, my father 
proposed that each should send in a separate vote with 
its grounds duly set forth. His was for the Empire 
with a constitution resembling the English Charta as 
much as possible. 

On May 18th 1804, the Second Consul brought 
forward the project of Seatus-Consultus, which created 
the Empire and the almost absolute power of Bona- 
parte; this project was at once adopted, and by unani- 
‘mous consent, minus two votes that were null and void, 
and three against it. The latter met with the same 
treatment as the others at the Emperor’s hands, and 
it is worthy of note that when the names of the can- 
didates to senatorial office were laid before him, he 
was indignant not to see any of those who had voted 
against the Empire. 

This was a unique epoch in our history. We were 
living, as it were, in a rarefied atmosphere of miracles; 
on that 18th of May, especially, a day of intoxicating 
splendour and triumph. The senate had hardly passed 
its vote for the Empire, before all the members, tumul- 
tuously following on the steps of the Second Consul, 
came in a body to St. Cloud in a burst of enthusi- 
asm. Napoleon being proclaimed Emperor, then sent 
them back to closet himself with Cambacérés, settling 
then and there the transformation of the Italian Re- 
public into a kingdom; the inauguration of the Order 
of Honour; negotiations with the Pope to come over 


128 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP, 


and consecrate him himself; and pending his arrival, 
the invasion of England. 

France, being consulted, declared that she desired 
the Empire, and Napoleon for Emperor, in one loud 
response of 3,524,254 voices! Truguet was the sole 
admiral of the fleet who refused to accept it; if there 
were any dissentients in the army they kept silence: 
when the accession of the First Consul to the Empire 
was proclaimed in its ranks, it was received with 
unanimous acclamations. One colonel of infantry alone, 
a man of splendid stature and of well-known merit 
turned round and in bold accents exclaimed: ‘Silence 
in the ranks!” This was Mouton, afterwards a marshal 
and Count de Lobau. Napoleon’s reply to this repu- 
blican manifestation did not tarry. It was worthy of 
each of these brave spirits; for shortly after, the colo- 
nel received with his general’s brevet that of aide-de- 
camp to the Emperor. 

It is known that the principal motive alleged for the 
creation of the Empire was to discourage attacks on 
the life and temporary power of Bonaparte by making 
this power hereditary in his family. So that to restore 
the Republic or the old monarchy, there would not be 
one man alone to strike down but an entire dynasty. 
Thus, as always happens with abortive plots, like that 
of the 3rd Nivése which, having doubled the power of 
Napoleon, had the effect of soon after causing him to 
be made Consul for life, this one made him Emperor, 
even before sentence on the conspirators had been 
pronounced, and in spite of the murder of Vincennes! 


CHAPTER XL 
THE CAMP AT BOULOGNE. 


HE army at that time better organized, clothed, 

disciplined and trained than it has ever been since, 
had been placed on the most formidable footing: 
150,000 men, 58 French ships of the line, 12 Batavian 
vessels, and 1800 armed transports were to be kept 
in readiness to invade England. On July 18th Napo- 
leon suddenly re-appeared at Boulogne-sur-Mer, in 
the midst of his camps and his flotilla. His first words 
to Marshal Soult on arrival were: “How much time 
“do you require to be ready to embark? ”—*« Three 
“days, Sire.”—“T can only give you one,” retorted the 
Emperor.—“ That is an impossibility,” answered the 
Marshal.—‘ Impossible, Sir!” exclaimed the Emperor, 
“T am not acquainted with the word; it is not in the 
“French language, erase it from your dictionary.” He 
at once indeed prescribed such measures as would 
ensure the possibility of embarking within twenty- 
four hours. 

But on the morrow, whether from his usual success 
in overcoming great difficulties, or from the know- 
ledge that he had so often proved himself right, even 
when the wisest were opposed to him, he was carried away 


by too great confidence. Thus good fortune and 
II 129 


130 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


even experience itself may lead us astray. That very 
day, his mind being entirely on his fleet, he in- 
sisted that all sails should be set, and on exercising 
it under the eyes of the English squadron, in spite of 
menacing skies and against the advice of a rear- 
admiral. As the one persisted in his opinion, the other 
got into a fury, and his violence was such that the 
sailor, with a hand on the hilt of his sword, thought it 
necessary to hold himself upon the defensive. The 
Emperor, however, who was incapable of personally 
laying hands upon him, caused him to be disarmed, 
and paying no attention to his advice insisted that the 
vessels should put out to sea. What the rear-admiral 
had foreseen, took place. Napoleon, it is true, gained 
a victory over the English by driving away their 
squadron and taking one of their vessels, but was 
conquered by the storm in which he had refused 
to believe. He himself very narrowly escaped, and 
four of his vessels perished. Then recognising his two- 
fold error, he did his best to retrieve it; in the first 
instance by spending the whole night in the tower of 
Heurt in efforts to succour his ship-wrecked mariners, 
and secondly, tacitly acknowledging his own error by 
forgiving the admiral’s, and causing him to forget his 
first hasty movement of violence. 

During the following twenty-five days he gave up 
his attention to his gigantic plan of invasion, which 
we shall soon see in its entirety, and to his various 
camps before which he paraded for the first time as 
the Emperor. He inspected the broad road-ways and 
the drainage canals which had been executed by his 
orders, a work which not only preserved the sanitary 
condition of the camps, but facilitated the means of com- 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I, 131 


munication between them and the surrounding country. 
His active and ingenious soldiers had beautified their 
huts by laying out numerous gardens adorned with 
flowers, with inscriptions in his honour, obelisks and 
pyramids which were generally surmounted by the 
laurel-crowned bust of their Emperor. He would mix 
with them freely, entering into every little detail of 
their comfort and bestowing with discrimination his 
praise, his favours, and any well-merited advancement, 
thus provoking their utmost enthusiasm. 

But the climax was on August 15th, his féte day. 
This anniversary marked one of the most solemn 
functions of his reign, that of the distribution of the 
Order of Honour to the army. It was announced by 
the guns of Boulogne, and those of Antwerp and 
Cherbourg, proclaiming at the same time the inaugu- 
ration of these two new ports, answered the salute. 
The victorious entry into Boulogne that same evening 
of a strong picked detachment of the flotilla brought 
to a close this memorable day which has been cele- 
brated by the erection of a monument. 

The day of his departure, August 26th, was signal- 
ized by a fresh success of the flotilla, which the 
Emperor, aided by Bruix, obtained against the enemy’s 
squadron, a vessel of which was sunk, and which 
was on the point of being boarded. Under our fire 
it drew back within half range, in sight of Napoleon, 
who was himself in command and most dangerously 
exposed to the English broadside. The Emperor’s 
first victorious attempt brought to a conclusion this 
martial journey which had caused the whole of England 
to shudder with terror. Having exhausted her money 
and her resources, she had been so much alarmed 


WAZ MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


that every man, including her ministers, had volun- 
teered and was bearing arms; and even before London 
itself, the passage of the Thames had been barred. At 
that time Pitt once more cherished the hope of buying 
a new coalition, and his lucky star ordained that just 
then Latouche-Tréville should die of an illness which 
he had contracted in the Antilles. He was the best 
of our admirals; he alone was in the secret of the 
whole enterprise; in conjunction with the fleet at Toulon 
he was to have hoodwinked Nelson, raised the block- 
ade of our ocean ports, rallied our squadrons there, 
and protected our descent which had to be put off to 
a later date, and whose fate, by an unhappy choice of 
the minister Decrés, was entrusted to the incapable 
hands of Villeneuve. 

It would seem, however, as if the Emperor’s mind 
were halting between several diversions, one of these, 
which he afterwards gave up to concentrate all his 
strength in the Straits, was a plan of landing in Ireland. 

From Boulogne Napoleon proceeded to Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, where Josephine was awaiting him. There the 
two Cobentzels, one of whom was a minister, and 
the other the Viennese Ambassador, were obliged by 
threats to cause their master at last to acknowledge 
the Emperor. Aix-la-Chapelle had been the town of 
Charlemagne. He revived the annual celebration of 
the honours which had been formerly paid to the 
memory of this great ruler, and for the first time for 
a thousand years, the delighted people thought that 
in Napoleon their hero was reincarnated. The remem- 
brance will doubtless always endure of the thousand 
benefits which he heaped upon these hitherto neglected 
countries, and of all the advantages which he bestowed 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 133 


upon their towns, opening up new communications 
between them by land and by sea, and further on, 
towards Coblentz, constructing the road along the bank 
of the Rhine, 45 feet in width, which was cut out of 
the rock for the space of ten leagues. 

We may add to all this his solicitude for the poor; 
the asylums which he secured for them in a country 
eaten up by mendicity, and the touching remembrance 
of the peaceful retreat on an island of the Rhine which 
he granted to the unfortunate religious whose convents 
had been suppressed. 

We may also cite in proof of that tender-hearted- 
ness which his blinded enemies would never recognise 
in Napoleon, an instance of his beneficent goodness 
which took place on another island on this stream ; 
it will recall that of the St. Bernard in 1800. This time 
a poor widow was the object of it. He had been 
touched by the sad sight of this woman’s poverty and 
by her grief at the enlistment of her only son. With- 
out revealing his identity, he had gained her confidence. 
“Console yourself,” he said, mentioning a fictitious 
name, “come to my house to-morrow and ask for 
“me; I have some influence with the ministers and will 
“recommend your cause.” Thus reassured and encour- 
aged, the poor woman took heart and ventured to 
present herself the next day. She was at once received, 
and when, in the midst of her wonder at the imperial 
luxury around her, she recognised the Emperor in the 
charitable unknown of the previous evening, her con- 
fusion was at first extreme; it was speedily, however, 
succeeded by boundless joy on hearing the order given 
that her house which had been destroyed by the war 
should be rebuilt, that a small flock of sheep and a 


134 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


few acres of ground should be added to it, and that 
her only son then serving under our banners should 
be restored ‘to: her: 

A few days later, the name of Guttenburg received 
flattering recognition in Mayence which had been at 
the same time fortified and improved. I happened to 
be there at the time, for Napoleon who was much 
more considerate for those around him than was 
generally supposed, knowing that I was in great trouble 
in Paris, had paternally called me to Mayence by way 
of diverting my mind. It was there, in the midst of 
a numerous assemblage of German princes, that we 
heard the young Hereditary Duke of Baden, when 
questioned by Napoleon at a levée as to what he had 
been doing the previous evening, answer with some 
hesitation that he had been walking about the streets; 
on which the Emperor reproved him in this wise: 
“That was very foolish of you. You should have gone 
“round the fortifications and examined them carefully. 
“How do you know but what you may be one day 
“attacking the place yourself? For instance when I was 
“a young artillery officer walking about Toulon, how 
“could I have foreseen that one day it would be my 
“fate to retake that town?” 

During his stay there the Emperor had temporarily 
entrusted me to look after the Empress whom he had 
been obliged to leave behind. She related to me that 
at Aix-la-Chapelle she had been shown a piece of our 
Saviour’s cross which Charlemagne had long carried 
about with him as a talisman, adding that almost a 
whole arm of the hero remained in good preservation 
and had been offered to her, but that she only accepted 
a splinter of bone which she showed me, saying: 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 135 


“That she would not deprive Aix-la-Chapelle of such 
“a precious relic, more especially as she had the support 
“of an arm belonging to one almost as great as Char- 
“lemagne.” 

It had been through no fault of the English Govern- 
ment of the day that the course of his journey had 
not been interrupted by the carrying-out of a fresh 
crime on the part of its minister to the court of Hesse. 
Two assassins in the pay of this diplomatist had been 
discovered in Mayence by Bonaparte and their corre- 
spondence seized. Rumbolt, another English agent 
who had been taken away from Hamburg with the 
proofs of a similar attempt, was incarcerated in the 
Temple and then released on the complaint of Prussia. 
These were the last dying embers of the great conspi- 
racy of Pichegru and Georges Cadoudal. The publicity 
given to these infernal machinations and the severity 
with which they were suppressed put an end to it. 

The accumulation of so many criminal attempts will 
explain why the Pope during that very year consented 
to consecrate the new Emperor. These infamies were 
no excuse for the murder which they provoked; but 
the indignation caused by them may have had a share 
in the motives which induced the Holy Father to 
decide on this solemn act. 


CHAPTER XIL 


THE CONSECRATION. 


eae cape | in this solemn function, its perfect 
order, the serene skies, the full concurrence of 
the Holy Father, the public acclamations outside as 
well as inside Néotre Dame, combined to gratify Napo- 
leon’s expectations to the full. I can answer for this, 
I was a witness of it; I was in command that day in 
the cathedral, I had taken military possession of it 
from the previous evening; this was a matter of right 
and custom, and the safety of the Emperor demanded 
it. The imperial insignia had been entrusted to me 
and amongst them the sword of Charlemagne. I 
even remember that during the night which we passed 
standing in the church, one of the officers under me 
who had the charge of this sword, was foolish enough 
to draw it against one of his comrades, who having 
vainly parried with his own sabre, congratulated him- 
self on having been overcome and slightly wounded 
by the sword of so great a man. 

The Pope had desired that the Emperor should com- 
municate publicly on the day of the consecration, and 
Napoleon had taken counsel on the point; my father 
raising the objection that previous confession would 


be necessary, that he might not care to accede to this, 
136 


MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 137 


and that there was also the chance of absolution being 
refused to him. 

“That is not the difficulty,” replied Napoleon; “the 
“Holy Father can distinguish between the sins of 
“Caesar and those of the man.” Then continuing: “I 
“know,” he said, “that I should give the example of 
“respect for religion and for its ministers: wherefore 
“you see me treat the priests with consideration, go 
“regularly to mass, and assist at it with a solemn and 
“devotional demeanour. But men know me for what 
“T am; and with me as with others if I were to go 
“further—what think you? would it not be giving at the 
“same time an example of hypocrisy and committing 
“a sacrilege?” The case thus set forth was a foregone 
conclusion; my father was obliged to confess this, and 
the Pope also. 

This family souvenir recalls another; it is that on 
the very day this conversation took place, I was put 
under arrest by the Emperor. I had been obliged to 
refuse the indiscreet request of a person, politically 
only too well known, for extra seats in Notre Dame. 
This individual came to my father’s house to complain 
to him personally in very unmeasured terms. I was 
present, and although he had been better received than 
he deserved, I heard him, when he was leaving, make 
use of threatening language. It should be said that 
this enraged ex-Jacobin was reputed to have caused 
the imprisonment of my grandfather, the Marshal de 
Segur, and of having singled him out for the scaffold, 
the gth Thermidor alone having saved him from the 
ferocity of this wretch. With this cruel memory revived 
by the impudent presence of this Montagnard amongst 
us, my anger may be imagined, and there was certainly 





138 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


every excuse for it. He even experienced the effects 
of it on the way from the drawing-room to the street 
door, and that perhaps ought to have been enough; 
but with vengeance in my heart I went further; I 
desired at once to bring the matter to an issue, and as 
he alleged the darkness of the night, I forced him to 
agree to a meeting for the next day. 

During this interchange of blows my father, much 
taken up with the approaching consecration, had returned 
to the Emperor, who noticing that he appeared anxious, 
asked him the reason of it. Having been informed on 
the point he forbade this duel and ordered me to remain 
indoors, and an hour afterwards, the ex-Terrorist, 
battered as he was, came back by his orders to close 
the incident by making my father a humble apology. 

To return to a less personal subject. The then en- 
tirely respectful and affectionate regard of Napoleon 
for the Holy Father has been denied, but such asper- 
sions were calumnious as I should and do affirm. 
From the moment of the arrival of this pontiff, in 
every way worthy of universal veneration, up to his 
return to Italy, it was I who had the charge of looking 
after him and his guard. He was occupying at the 
Tuileries by the side of the Emperor that wing of the 
palace which looked out on the Pont-Royal and over 
the Seine. Nothing was spared to please the members 
of his suite, who had been rather curiously selected, 
and their somewhat remarkable tastes. The same care 
and respect was shown His Holiness as to the Emperor 
himself. In the furnishing and arrangement of his 
rooms, everything had been done to try and remind 
him as much as possible of Rome, and in the style 
to which he was accustomed. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 139 


As for Napoleon, we all remarked his sweet and 
grateful cheerfulness, and the filial and caressing defer- 
ence which he showed to his guest. It is known 
that he fully satisfied the spiritual and temporal demands 
of the Pontiff, either by certain concessions, or by 
such convincing and well-turned explanations that it 
would have been impossible not to accept them. 

When the Holy Father used to bestow his blessing 
from his window, and especially during the frequent 
audiences which he gave in the gallery of the Louvre 
to a numerous public attracted by his presence there, 
an active supervision held in check or repressed French 
indiscretion and lightness. We saw the atheist Lalande 
himself fall at the feet of the Pontiff and kiss his 
slipper. The Pope was received as a sovereign in 
all the public places he honoured with his presence; 
he was not allowed to distinguish between mere curi- 
osity or piety, and I have often seen this really holy 
successor of the apostles, whose venerable countenance 
bore the imprint of the most peaceful benevolence, 
frugal, simple and austere as he was for himself, and 
so amiably and paternally indulgent to others, pro- 
foundly moved by the lively and pious impression 
which he produced. 

The Pope remained four months in Paris, after the 
consecration, and then departed on April 4th, 1805. 
I was ordered to reconduct him as far as Voghere, the 
last town to which imperial jurisdiction then extended. 
The French Cardinal de Bayanne, during this journey, 
used to enliven all our meals by his witticisms. It 
was at table above all that his Italian colleagues con- 
soled themselves for being still in France. He, dainty 
rather than gluttonous, used to show the most amusing 


140 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


distaste for everything that was not exquisitely delicious. 
“Leave that, eat this,” he used to say to me, “and 
“believe me, an old priest is always the best judge of 
“what is good.” 

The conversation turning upon war, the cardinal 
gave an account of an awful wound which had been 
miraculously and radically cured. A general who was 
present took advantage of the opportunity to speak 
of an equally serious wound which he had received in 
Egypt, and which still troubled him: “ Oh!” retorted 
the cardinal, “that is because your bullet was Turkish, 
“an infidel bullet; whilst the one I am telling you 
“about was Christian and apostolic, that is very different. 
“It only just missed being Roman!” 

That day Marquis Sachetti chose to introduce the 
confessor of the Holy Father to us as a saint who had 
obtained a miracle from the Holy Virgin. But the 
Pope smiled as he listened to him, to which the Car- 
dinal de Bayanne drew our attention; leading us to 
have more faith in the Pope’s smile than in the hearty 
and sincere testimony of the major-domo. 

We were then at Chalons where the Holy Father 
was received beyond our every expectation. Macon 
was cold. Since the terrible siege of Lyons in 1793, 
the Montagnards, who had taken refuge there, had 
left their evil spirit behind them. Quite recently, when 
it had been attempted to re-establish the barriers, the 
bust of the Emperor and the barriers themselves were 
‘all thrown pell-mell into the Seine. 

Lyons on the contrary, pious and imperial, received 
us with open arms and hearts. When on the day 
after our arrival, the Holy Father allowed the people 
in the Cathedral to come and kiss his slipper and 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 141 


receive his blessing, the crowd was so considerable 
and their eagerness so excessive, the last comers push- 
ing up against the earlier ones to such a degree, that 
he was nearly crushed up against the altar and at one 
moment really seemed to be in some danger. Fortu- 
nately I had ordered a battalion of Hanoverians to be 
placed at my disposition, who, good honest Germans 
as they were, implicitly following orders, had no hesi- 
tation in answering to my call. It was high time. 
An absolute charge was necessary to rescue the Pope, 
who had been at first moved, and then seriously 
alarmed by the extreme ardour of his devotees. The 
need of repulsing the crowd was absolute, but was 
not effected without many cries of distress, followed 
by fainting fits and even by childbirth, so it was 
said; several men and women having been carried out 
more dead than alive. I had no cause to blame my- 
self, for had I not had recourse to extreme measures, 
the Holy Father, whose glance had implored help, 
would certainly not have left the church alive. 

To leave nothing untold, I may as well add that I had 
preceded his arrival in this former city by a few hours. 
Cardinal Fesch was its first pastor, an excellent priest 
as to generosity, and it was his rough and unskilled 
negotiations, seconded by the solicitations of Bishop 
Bernier and Caprara, which had decided the Pope to 
undertake this great expedition. The sojourn of His 
Holiness at Lyons was to be its last remarkable 
episode. This sojourn necessitated a certain amount 
of expense; and whether from a spirit of mischief, or 
economy, on the part of the Emperor who looked into 
everything, he had planned that his uncle, the Car- 
dinal, should bear all expenses, and that I should 


142 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


arrange it with His Excellency. But at the first word 
of this unpalatable proposal, the Cardinal’s indignation 
was so great that, half choked with rage, he could 
only reply by inarticulate cries. I persisted, less from 
any hope of succeeding, than because I felt quite dis- 
posed to prolong a scene whose comic side caused me 
much amusement. But as the Cardinal’s anger was 
making him grow redder than his hat, I thought it 
prudent to take my departure, and seek other ways 
and means of providing funds for the reception of the 
Holy Father. 

It was here, I think, if not at Turin, that the Em- 
peror on his way to be crowned at Milan, and the 
Pope on his return; to Rome, met once more, and 
took leave of each other. The farewells of these two 
great Powers, temporally and spiritually the greatest 
then existing in the world, were touching. [Each per- 
fectly satisfied with the other, could no more than 
ourselves foresee how different would be their second 
interview, eight years later, at Fontainebleau. 


CHAPTER Sir: 
PREPARATIONS AGAINST ENGLAND. 


APOLEON having been crowned King of Italy, 

took two days and a half to return from Turin 
to St. Cloud, and at once apparently busied himself 
solely with home affairs, being desirous of prolonging 
by a few hours the feeling of security which reigned 
in England; but when the time had come and his last 
orders had been given, he hastened to Boulogne on 
August 3rd. There, as on the high seas, all had been 
propitious. The uniformly victorious Verhuel had joined 
the flotilla lying between Ostend and Ambleteuse. 
Exposed to the attacks of Sir Sydney Smith, he had 
had to double two capes, and in this perilous journey, 
without any losses on his side, he had destroyed three 
of the enemy’s corvettes. Other manceuvres from Texel 
to Brest were attempted, and Napoleon by these means 
assured himself as to the embarkation in a few hours 
of 10,000 horses and 160,000 men. 

Never was seen in any army such glowing ardour 
as in ours. Officers and men were alike buoyed up 
with the expectancy of conquering and pursuing the 
English, even into London itself. On our arrival in 
Boulogne on August 2nd, when Rapp and I informed 


Soult that the Emperor was to arrive the next day, 
143 


144 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


and that soon after the invasion would be attempted, 
the marshal in a transport of delight clapped both 
hands to his head, and bounded from one end of the 
room to the other. The Emperor was still more 
impatient. The moment he alighted from his carriage 
the next day, he announced that instead of twenty-four 
hours as he had said the previous year, only four hours 
would be allowed for the embarkation of the troops. 
Everything was immediately put on board and they 
were to hold themselves in readiness for the first signal. 

However, in his anxiety concerning the arrival of 
Villeneuve, he said the next day: “This invasion is 
“by no means a certainty. After Campo-Formio I would 
“have asked the Directorate for 26 millions of money, 
“ 36 vessels, and 36,000 men, and the conquest of England 
“would have been a certainty; I should not have hesi- 
“tated a moment. But it is quite another thing now, 
“JT cannot risk matters in that way; I have become too 
“important a person!” Then in a more sanguine mood, 
he added: “The knell of England has sounded, we 
“have to avenge the defeats of Poitiers, of Cressy and 
“of Agincourt. For five hundred years the English 
“have been paramount even in Paris itself. The Eng- 
“lish are masters of the universe. We can ina night put 
“them back into their places. They conquered France 
“under an idiot king; we shall conquer England under 
“a demented one!” 

According to his usual custom, Napoleon was aiming 
straight at the heart; all was to be over in a fortnight. 
The shores of Kent and of Sussex were the goal of 
the flotilla whence the army should spring upon 
London; whilst the expedition of the Texel, with the 
same end in view should have sailed up the Thames. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 145 


Everything really concurred to warrant these high 
expectations. On our shores, in our ports, and in our 
roadsteads, all was in readiness; and as the Emperor 
said himself: “The nature of his plan was so good 
“that in spite of all kinds of obstacles every chance 
“was in his favour.” But to our eternal regret, so 
unique an occasion never again to be met with, such a 
formidable host, such an enormous outlay backed up by 
every effort and care, the most vast and best combined 
plan ever conceived by the genius of our Emperor, in 
short, the fate of France was to be jeopardized by 
one man! 

To govern, it is said, is to choose; and the choice 
of the minister Decrés was a very bad one. Villeneuve, 
who was modest and disinterested, was also timid and 
irresolute. The courage of the soldier sank under 
the sense of the overpowering responsibility of the 
general. More crushed than honoured by the Emperor’s 
choice, he would indeed have prepared to relinquish 
the post. With the candour which distinguished him, 
Villeneuve exclaimed: “That it was too much; that 
“he could see his way to command a squadron, but 
“not so considerable a fleet.” Like all minds so unfor- 
tunately constituted, he only looked at things from 
the dark side, imagining that the very thing he had 
decided not to do, was always better than the course 
he had taken, and always thinking the enemy all- 
powerful. Decrés had paid no heed to this; he had 
not understood his character. Villeneuve was the friend 
of his childhood, and the minister persisted in believing 
in the temporary and factitious ardour of his early 
impulses. Thus the fate of England, and of France, of 


our sailors and our Emperor, depended on a chief who 
IZ 


146 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


had not any greater trust in others than he had in himself. 

Early in June after receiving the first dispatch of 
this admiral, Napoleon, with his eagle glance, had 
perceived the minister’s mistake and tried to bring 
about his recall. His instructions from Milan were as 
follows: “I consider that Villeneuve has not sufficient 
“force of character; that he has had no experience of 
“war; and as soon as he returns to Brest, Gantheaume 
“must be sent to replace him.” He concluded by saying 
that he would sign and despatch the order on the 
spot. I am ignorant if Gantheaume did possess more 
strength of character, but it was impossible to put the 
order into execution, and our fate remained in the 
hands of Villeneuve. 

As long as it was only a question of avoiding 
Nelson, the admiral conformed to the spirit of his 
instructions. But in spite of excellent seamanship, 
whether wearied out by his continual fears, or by some 
days of contrary weather, when he appeared on July 
22nd with twenty of his vessels off Cape Finisterre, and 
at mid-day met Calder and fifteen English vessels, he 
lost two whole hours hesitating what to do. At last 
they engaged in combat. Calder presented a close 
front, while Villeneuve was too scattered; the result 
being that a thick fog having spread over the two 
fleets and rendered signals useless, two Spanish vessels 
which had become dismasted after a blind and violent 
struggle were left without succour. Help could have 
been afforded them, for the fog having lifted, it could 
be seen that they were in danger; but our admiral 
refused to come to their aid, and they were taken, 
having been forced by the wind into the very midst 
of the English fleet. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 147 


Calder, however, who had suffered more than our- 
selves, withdrew on the following day, and Villeneuve 
remained master of his movements; but with his usual 
indecision, he missed his opportunity, tried to seize it 
again when too late, and allowed his adversary to 
escape, went on to Vigo, thence to Corogne to refresh 
and lighten his fleet, and unite it with that of Ferrol. 

I have it from Lauriston, afterwards a marshal and 
peer of France, then aide-de-camp to Napoleon, who 
was on Villeneuve’s fleet, that the day after this 
battle, Rear-admiral Magon was a prey to such violent 
indignation when the first signal was given by the 
admiral to let the English fleet go, that he stamped 
and foamed at the mouth; and that whilst he was 
furiously pacing his own ship, as that of the admiral 
passed by in its retreat, he gave vent to furious 
exclamations and flung at him in his rage whatever 
happened to be to hand, including his field-glass and 
even his wig, both of which fell into the sea, but 
Villeneuve was not only too far off for these missiles 
to reach him, but was entirely out of hearing. 

From my own knowledge of Magon, with whom I 
had been brought into relation in various missions, I 
believe with Lauriston, that had he been in Villeneuve’s 
place, the orders of the Emperor would have been 
obeyed, the invasion probably effected, and the face 
of the world altered; but where too many secondary 
interests have to be considered, such characters give 
too much ground for jealousy: they are made use of 
in subordinate positions. Thus, he who would have 
suited Napoleon, from that very fact was distasteful 
to his minister. 

The unfortunate Villeneuve remained three weeks 


148 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


in Vigo and Corogne to revictual and refit his fleet. 
He really could not rouse himself owing to his extreme 
dejection through this reverse which might have been 
avoided. The reproaches which came to his ears, as 
well as those which he heaped upon himself (for he 
was his own worst enemy), threw him into the most 
deplorable state of dejection. He left this anchorage 
about August 12th, when he had 34 vessels, counting 
those of Lallemande. Left master of the sea he could 
perfectly well have obeyed the express commands of 
the Emperor, and those of his minister who had repeat- 
edly instructed him, with his 34 sail against only 
18 of Cornwallis, at all hazards to raise the blockade 
at Brest of 21 vessels; and thus with a strength of 
fifty-five sail to take possession of the Channel where 
our army was embarked, where Napoleon was await- 
ing him, and where he could have ensured our landing. 
But he was haunted by the spectre of Nelson! His 
fright gave him courage to disobey. After a state 
of hesitation which lasted for four days on the open 
seas, Villeneuve, who was personally brave as a man, 
though cowed by his responsibilities as a commander, 
took fright at a slight gale which on that day unfor- 
tunately was blowing up from the north east. If it 
had happened to blow from the south, as was told me 
by another witness * he would probably have taken 
advantage of it, and would not thus have failed to 
fulfil the expectations of the Emperor and of our army, 
and might have made the fortune of the empire. 
With this fatal irresolution of Villeneuve, a slight 
incident, a breath of wind swayed the balance. On 


* Reille, now a Marshal of France after having been aide-de-camp 
to the Emperor. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 149 


so little hinges the fate of the world—on a mere breath 
of wind, not even a storm. It pleased fate to over- 
throw by this faint breath the entire work of Napoleon, 
and the grandest hope ever conceived by France. So 
little weight have the greatest of men, their largest 
conceptions and the most powerful empires, in the 
scales of fortune! 

On August 21st, at the very moment when the 
advent of this unhappy Villeneuve was more than ever 
hoped for and expected before Brest and in the Channel, 
the admiral was turning his back upon us. He was 
entering into Cadiz where he allowed himself to be 
blocked up by six of the enemy’s sail, thus, rendering 
completely useless his fleet, our flotilla, the Emperor 
himself, and the whole expedition, which was vainly 
expecting him at Brest, at Boulogne, and at the Texel. 

Thus it was that England was saved! Let it not 
again be said that the diversion which Pitt had pre- 
pared on the continent could possibly have kept our 
Emperor there. This danger had been foreseen and 
guarded against. Our forces were already assembling 
beyond the Rhine, on this river and in Italy: they 
held Austria in check. Duroc had been immediately 
despatched to Frederic to give up Hanover to him in 
exchange for an offensive alliance which for the second 
time he seemed ready to accept. Besides which, the 
treaty of London with Russia only dated from April 
11th. The idea of a war in her territory was distasteful 
to Germany; Bavaria was devoted to us; Vienna in 
spite of threatening preparations, hesitated. Her formal 
accession to a third coalition could only have been 
obtained on August 11th, and she had not dared to 
avow it. On September 3rd she still appeared as a 


150 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


mediatrix; and at that very time the fate of London 
might have been settled a fortnight previously. Had 
that been the case, this capital, the very brain and 
centre of all coalitions, being taken, and Pitt in all 
probability forced to capitulate, Napoleon would have 
imperiously dictated to Austria the conditions which 
would have suited his policy. 


CHAPTER XIV. 
THE PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN OF AUSTERLITZ. 


HILST Villeneuve at Carogne and in Cadiz was 

thus disappointing our cherished hopes, at 
Boulogne everything had been organized and completed. 
Reviews, manceuvres, embarkations and disembarka- 
tions, a thousand eager and anxious glances incessantly 
fixed on the sea, a thousand conjectures addressed by 
day and night to his minister, had occupied Napoleon 
in the midst of the extreme agitation of his weary 
waiting. With his mind thus on the stretch, he had 
in his impatience made Lacrosse, with seventy-five of 
the flotilla, attack the English cruising-station, and 
victory had remained with them. On that day half 
the Channel belonged to us during some hours; 
England thought she was on the point of being 
invaded; in her distress Calder was put on his trial, 
but on receiving the news of Villeneuve’s inconceivable 
inaction and of his flight to Cadiz, she was triumphant, 
and her joyful outcry reached the ears of Napoleon 
who was kept better informed by our spies and the 
English press than by his own messengers and the 
telegraph wires. His displeasure was first manifest on 
August 7th at the news of the battle of Finisterre, 


and his disappointment on the following days on hearing 
151 


152 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


that Villeneuve had entered Ferrol, believing him to 
be blocked there. At this first instance of disobedience 
to his orders, although the mischief at that time was 
not irreparable, the Emperor, who knew better than 
anyone the value of time, perceived that his admiral 
was by no means aware of its importance, that he had 
not understood the vastness of his mission, and that in 
this great drama, which had up to then so satisfactorily 
unfolded itself, Villeneuve, not being equal to his part, 
would fail them at the most important crisis. 

It was about four o’clock in the morning of August 
13th that the news was brought to the Emperor at 
the imperial quarters at Pont-de-Briques. Daru was 
summoned, and on entering he gazed on his chief in 
utter astonishment. He told me afterwards that he 
looked perfectly wild, that his hat was thrust down to 
his eyes, and his whole aspect was terrible. As soon 
as he saw Daru, he rushed up and thus apostrophized 
him: * Do you know where that—fool of a Villeneuve 
“is now? He is at Ferrol. Do you know what 
“that means-—at Ferrol? Ah, you do not know? He 
“has been beaten; he has gone to hide himself at 
“Ferrol. (That is the end of it, he will be blocked 
“up there. What a navy! What an admiral! What 
“useless sacrifices! ” 

And becoming more and more excited, he walked 
up and down the room with great strides for about 
an hour, giving vent to his justifiable anger in a 
torrent of bitter reproaches and sorrowful reflections. 
Then stopping suddenly and pointing to a desk 
which was covered with papers: “Sit down there,” 
he said to Daru. “ Write!” and then and there, without 
any transition, without any apparent meditation, and in 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 153 


his brief, concise, and imperious tones, he dictated to 
him without a moment’s hesitation the whole plan of the 
campaign of Ulm as far as Vienna. The army of the 
coast, ranged in a line of more than two hundred leagues 
long, fronting the Ocean, were, at the first signal, to 
face about, to break up, and march to the Danube 
in several columns. The order of the various marches, 
their durations; the spots where the columns should 
converge or re-unite; surprises; attacks in full force; 
divers movements; mistakes of the enemy; all had 
been foreseen during this hurried dictation. Two 
months, three hundred leagues, and more than two 
hundred thousand of the enemy separated thought from 
results, and yet, time and space and various obstacles 
were all overcome, and the whole future illumined by 
the genius of our Emperor. His foresight which was 
as much to be depended upon as his memory, could 
already predict, starting from Boulogne, the principal 
events of this projected war, their dates and their 
decisive results; and he dictated these to Daru with 
such certainty that a month after they had been ful- 
filled, he was able to remember them. The various 
fields of battle, the victories to be gained, even the 
very days in which we were to enter Munich and 
Vienna, all was foreseen and written down as it 
really happened later, two months in advance, at this 
identical hour of August 13th, and from these head- 
quarters on the coast! 

Although accustomed to the sudden inspirations of 
his chief, Daru was perfectly amazed, and still more 
so when he found that these oracular predictions came 
true on the very days named up to the time of our 
arrival in Munich. If there were some little variations 


154 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


as to time, though not as to results, between Munich 
and Vienna, they were to our advantage. Long after- 
wards and frequently did this minister, still under the 
same spell of astonishment, tell me over and over 
again, that he had not less admired the clear and 
prompt determination of Napoleon to give up such 
enormous preparations without hesitation, than the 
correctness of his previsions when he suddenly changed 
all his plans to concentrate them against other adver- 
saries. 

These dictated directions to Daru remained unknown. 
A new hope had taken possession of the Emperor. 
His spirited and last instructions on August 11th, 13th, 
and 22nd prove this. They were: “ That it would be 
“too ridiculous that a skirmish of three hours should 
“cause such vast projects to fail; that one should on 
“the contrary persist in them. Gravina is all energy 
“and force of character. Why does not Villeneuve 
“resemble him? Why should Villeneuve, at the head 
“of so many brave sailors, let everything go to destruc- 
“tion through sloth and despondency, when the Eng- 
“lish, threatened on every side, are altogether wearied 
“out and dispersed? Will eighteen vessels allow them- 
“selves to be blocked up by fourteen!” 

On August 22nd he again vainly wrote to Villeneuve 
and to Gantheaume: “Make a start! come into the 
“Channel, and England is ours, and six centuries of 
“shame and insult will be avenged!” On the follow- 
ing days, in spite of more and more alarming accounts 
from Austria of the flight of Villeneuve and the dis- 
couragement of Decrés, he had not yet given up hopes 
of taking England, but towards the end of August, 
when the irreparable defection of his admiral was at 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. P55 


last only too certain, at table one day, he dashed down 
the glass which he was holding and exclaimed: “ Well 
“if we must give that up, we will at any rate hear 
“the midnight mass in Vienna.” 

Having secretly arranged everything since the 23rd, 
for this sudden return to the Danube, and on the 26th 
for a fresh levy of 60,000 men, he cast a last glance 
of regret and sorrow towards England; giving vent 
to his anger by dictating seven heads of accusation 
which should annihilate the culpable Villeneuve. Still 
master of everything, even of himself, he recovered 
his equanimity; and, in a memorandum free from any 
bitterness, he set forth the grandeur of the plan which 
he was constrained to abandon; resuming all its details 
as if to preserve or record its conception, justify its 
possibility, and prove how nearly he had been on the 
point of succeeding. He pointed out, how with cer- 
tain modifications it might some day be resumed, and 
in the meanwhile what ought to be done with the 
flotilla. 

In subsequent instructions he ordered that Rossilly 
should replace Villeneuve at Cadiz and that with a 
strength of forty sail, he should dominate the Mediter- 
ranean. We shall see later that disaster resulted from 
the execution of this order by Villeneuve himself. For 
the fatal battle of Trafalgar was the outcome of this, 
and if Nelson perished in it, so also did our navy. 
We no longer had a fleet, we had only a few 
squadrons. Then began the fortunate cruise of Lal- 
lemand whom Villeneuve had abandoned in the sea of 
Ferrol, thus increasing his own despair by making 
Lallemand famous. 

As for the other squadrons, one of them was to be 


156 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


sent into American waters. A vague prescience of 
the future would seem for the second time specially 
to have fixed Napoleon’s thoughts on St. Helena. He 
ordered that it should be taken possession of and 
several times reiterated this command. The importance 
which he at that time attached to the possession of 
this rock, in the light of subsequent events, became 
remarkable. 

At last on September 1st Napoleon left Boulogne, 
and six days later began the counter-march of the 
great Imperial army. The coasts were deserted and 
given up to our navy. Thus miscarried the greatest 
and most important, the most skilfully conceived and 
laboriously prepared design that ever emanated from 
the grand mind of the Emperor. 


CEEARIER SV. 
THE GRAND ARMY ENTERS GERMANY. 


N order to accelerate the progress of his army on 

the march, the Emperor conceived the idea of con- 
veying them by post-stages. Having sent for the Mayor 
of Lille, he said to him: “ Go now, receive and congra- 
“tulate my divisions on their way through, and organize 
“means of conveyance to facilitate their march. You 
“may expect 25,000 men, for whom waggons must be 
“ready: you will thus initiate this movement and set 
“the first great and useful example!” This magistrate 
having declared that it went very much against him 
to welcome General V.... whose Jacobinism he com- 
mented upon: “Do not dare to say anything of the 
“kind, he exclaimed; do you not see that now we 
“are all equally serving France? I would have you 
“know, Sir, that between the 17th and the 18th Brumaire 
“TI have erected a wall of brass which no glance may 
“penetrate, and against which all recollections must be 
“dashed to pieces!” 

On the day that had been settled, and at the hour 
that had been decided upon, all the marshals having 
reached their destination, amongst them Bernadotte 
(the only one who by speaking out relieved himself 
of the annoyance that obedience always caused him), 


157 


158 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


I received the order to be at the Luxembourg on 
September 23rd, where, with a detachment of the 
Imperial Guard, I was to take over the command of 
this Palace of the Senate so as to receive Napoleon, 
who came there at once to declare the war. My 
father and Regnauld de Saint-Jean d’Angely, both 
councillors of State, were the bearers of the projects 
of senatus-consultus for the new levies of 80,000 
men and of the national guard. Napoleon wound up 
with these words: “Frenchmen, your Emperor will do 
his duty, my soldiers will do theirs, you will do yours! ” 
After which he returned to St. Cloud whilst I departed 
for Strasburg, preceding him only by twenty-four hours. 

He arrived there with the Empress on September 
26th. Whilst listening to the reports of the position of 
the enemy he roused the enthusiasm of his people by 
an eloquent proclamation; he also collected 20,000 
Alsatian waggons and caused them to be loaded with 
stores, and whilst from the first moment he was pushing 
forward all the various bodies of his army, he was 
reassuring Germany by a notification that there 
would be no encroachment of France beyond the 
Rhine, and ended by enlisting in his cause the greater 
part of the reigning princes on the right bank of 
this river. 

Placed between two fires, they had not yet quite 
made up their minds. The Elector of Bavaria, who 
had retired to Wurtzburg with his army, and who was 
pressed in contrary directions, on the one side by 
Bernadotte, and the other by an Austrian minister, 
hesitated to declare himself on the offensive. As soon 
as Napoleon saw in the distance the officer whom he 
was sending to him, he cried out: “ What news do 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 159 


you bring me at last? is it for us or against us?”— 
“For us,” answered Lagrange. “That is better! ” 
responded the Emperor, who could not, however, have 
had any doubts in the matter. 

General Mouton, afterwards Count de Lobau, was des- 
patched to the Elector of Wurtemburg through whose 
States we had to make our way. Ney, at the same 
time was marching upon the capital of this Electorate ; 
he had even forced open the gates, when an aide-de- 
camp of Napoleon arrived at our minister’s. “ Your 
“mission is a difficult one,” said the latter, “the Elector 
“is raving, and what is very rare, he is at the same 
“time irascible and firm; he will make a fine noise 
“about it!” “Not so much as a cannon,” answered 
the aide-de-camp, “and I am accustomed to that.” 
He then had himself presented to the prince, who 
having been prepared for his coming received him in 
the midst of his Council. 

The minister had predicted rightly; the scene was a 
violent one. The Elector broke in at the very begin- 
ning, scarlet with rage: “What you do you want?” 
he exclaimed; “your troops are invading my States, 
“they are violating my neutrality, it is a piece of treach- 
“ery! What business has your Bonaparte here? Shall 
“a prince of yesterday, a parvenu sovereign, offer 
“violence to me? to me, a prince of old time and of 
“the race of princes! But I am master here. I shall 
“soon prove it, I will send off these brigands.” But 
the aide-de-camp, who was standing, preserved the 
impassible immobility of his martial countenance and 
remained motionless. He allowed the torrent of invec- 
tive to break against his imperturbable composure. 
When the prince, who was out of breath with rage, and 


160 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


who through his extreme obesity had exhausted all his 
energy, was obliged to stop to take breath, the 
general answered coldly: “That he had not come to 
“listen to personalities, nor to reply to them, but to 
“treat; and that all these wild words made no impres- 
“sion on him and were quite futile, as he should not 
“even repeat them to the Emperor; that he had much 
“better listen to his propositions, all the more so because 
“Marshal Ney, with 30,000 men, was at the gates of 
“his capital!” The Elector was still fuming, but the 
contrast of this firm composure with his own unmeas- 
ured tage surprised himself.’ Ele felt that’ he had 
found his master, and realized that the blood of such 
men was as good as his own. Then changing his 
tone, he discussed the matter, and in an aside he let 
fall: “That such and such neighbouring possessions 
“were in his way, that if he had them and his elec- 
“torate was made a kingdom, matters might still be 
“ arranged.” 

When the aide-de-camp, from whom [I heard all this, 
reported the result to Napoleon, the latter began to 
laugh, saying: “ Well, that suits me very well; let him 
be a king, if that is all he wants!” 

All the bodies of our army on September 25th, fronting 
the east, were bordering the Rhine from Strasburg to 
Mayence; that of Bernadotte would soon arrive at Wurtz- 
burg, where the Bavarian army was awaiting it. Not 
a conscript was wanting: all were consumed with eager- 
ness; the signal was given! The marches of each chief 
were predetermined; the days and the hours calculated 
according to the diversity of arms, of distances, of the 
difficulties of the ground and its various irregularities. 
These instructions, of such infinite detail, had been traced 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 161 


out by so firm and sure a hand, that all these masses 
of men, arms, horses and artillery, store and baggage 
waggons were ready to be set in motion, and would 
simultaneously reach the goal indicated with the most 
unheard-of quickness and in the most admirable order. 
On September 26th each body of the army was to 
cross the Rhine; and by a wheel to the right, the 
left wing being in advance by Wurtzburg, the whole 
army, executing the greatest change of front ever 
known, would on October 6th suddenly find itself in 
line, facing the south, from Ulm up to Ingolstadt on 
the Danube, the imperial stream being at once crossed 
at Ingolstadt, Neuburg and Donawerth, then at Gaulh- 
burg. Suabia and Bavaria, Munich and Augsburg would 
be simultaneously reconquered, and Mack and the Arch- 
duke Ferdinand, being separated from the Russians 
and Austria, would be forced to let themselves be 
killed on the spot, or give themselves up prisoners. 
This plan is the prophetic account of the campaign. 
It will suffice for the future, when, owing to the accu- 
mulation of centuries, history will be forced to shorten 
all details, to allow of time to read it. This is the same 
manoeuvre as that of Marengo, but at closer quarters and 
much bolder; sure, instead of being rash; without the Alps 
to cross or recross, with an army three tines the strength 
of Mack’s instead of an army weaker by half than that 
of Mélas, and against a very different general. 
Notwithstanding this, on September 26th, the day of 
Napoleon’s arrival, as important and complete a result 
still depended upon the blindness and inaction of the 
Austrian army in its venturesome position, which was 
neither offensive nor defensive, with its front towards 
the Black Forest, its advance-guards thrown out into 


13 


162 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


the defiles of these mountains, and only looking 
straight ahead. It was requisite to concentrate and fix 
its attention there, and divert it from the great movement 
which was in readiness to turn its right. That is why 
on the eve of the Emperor’s arrival, September 25th, and 
that of this general movement, Murat with his cavalry 
and Lanne’s grenadiers, passed the Rhine at Strasburg. 
There, contrary to the rest of the army, they turned 
to the right, again proceeded up the right bank of the 
stream towards Friburg, filling the valley with tumult, 
and displaying the advance-guards of their menacing 
columns at every opening of the Black Mountains. 
But on the morrow, whilst Mack, believing himself 
attacked on his front, was concentrating all his means 
of defence on that point, the grand army, crossing 
the Rhine from Strasburg to Mayence, was hastening 
onwards to surround him; and Napoleon, at the pivot 
of this manceuvre, was completing his negotiations at 
Strasburg, having misled the enemy by his sojourn 
there, and having waited there till October 1st, till the 
movement of his marching wing was accomplished. 
From Murat’s reports that day, he believed that his 
previsions were realized, that Mack had been deceived 
by his first stratagem, and that success was indubitable. 
And here is the proof: I had just received orders to 
precede him, first at Ettlingen, then at Ludwigsburg 
and at the Elector of Wurtemburg’s, when the Empress 
said, on taking leave of me: “ Depart, and carry with 
“you my best wishes. May you be as fortunate as the 
“army and France.” Noticing my astonishment at such a 
positive assertion, she continued: “Do not doubt it for 
“a moment; the Emperor has just informed me that in 
“eight days the whole of the enemy’s army will infal- 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 163 


“libly be taken prisoner.” This was on October ist, 
and* on the 8th, Mack was completely turned; and a 
few days later it had become my lot in Ulm to force 
him to decide on the very capitulation which had been 
announced to me by the Empress. 

The Elector of Wurtemburg, who had been concili- 
ated, as we have seen, received the Emperor magnifi- 
cently at Ludwigsburg, when Napoleon completely 
gained him over to his cause. The Electress herself, 
though a princess of English blood, was won over by the 
care which Napoleon took of her private interests, and 
by the charming manners, recalling those of his early 
youth, which he displayed to fascinate her. He succeeded 
so completely that by way of excusing herself, she wrote: 
“His smile is positively delightful and enchanting,” 
in a letter to her mother, the Queen of England. 

Napoleon knew that Mack could no longer face him 
in the Black Mountains; Murat had therefore been 
called back from their openings on the Rhine, at the 
same time that Ney was, in his turn, pushed on from 
Stuttgart to Ulm, around which he took up a position 
with his left towards the Danube. He thus covered and 
concealed the rapid march of the other bodies upon 
Donawerth, Neuburg and Ingolstadt; a second time 
misleading and detaining upon the [ler the enemy’s 
unfortunate general, whose feeble sight could not pierce 
through this screen, and who was awaiting Napoleon 
in Ulm firmly, whilst, outstripping him at Ludwigsburg, 
the Emperor was marching from October 5th by 
Gmund and Nordlingen upon Donawerth. 

It Mack had any suspicions of this they were very 
vague; for, like all weak minds, satisfied with half 
measures, he contented himself by making Kienmayer 


104 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


and 10,000 men keep watch over the Danube and the 
bridge of Donawerth below him. 

Suddenly he learnt that on October 6th this division 
was overthrown; then he learnt successively; that on 
the 7th, the Danube was crossed, not only at Donawerth 
but also at Neuburg and Ingolstadt; that behind 
him, Suabia and even Bavaria were invaded and the 
Lech seized: that the next day October 8th, twelve 
battalions of grenadiers whom he had summoned to 
his help from the Tyrol, having been encountered by 
Murat at Vertingen, were either taken, killed, or 
dispersed, and that Augsburg must have fallen into our 
hands. On the gth he was overwhelmed by another 
blow, the attack directed against the three bridges 
situated between Ulm and Donawerth; and what was 
even worse, the news that Ney had just forced the 
Danube, behind him, by a fourth passage! The 
bandage over his eyes being thus torn away, Mack fell 
thunderstruck off his stilts. He recognised that without 
knowledge of the locality, without any conjecture as 
to the direction from which our forces had hastened, 
or as to what he had most to fear, our numbers, 
and the character of his adversary, he had just allowed 
200,000 men to pass by him unrecognised; and that 
he had not perceived this until, surrounded by them, 
they were masters of his retreat, and had interposed 
themselves between him and the Russian army which 
he was expecting; that they had separated him from 
Austria which it was his duty to have defended, 
and had driven him up on Ulm, with his back against 
the Black Mountains and that very Rhine from which 
his foolish pride had braved Napoleon and dared to 
threaten France? 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 165 


It was supposed that this general adopting a desperate 
course then faced us in the rear, from Ulm to Meningen ; 
but the facts, which alone testify on his side, and our 
own impressions of the moment are, that he did not 
take any course at all, but that from October the 6th 
to the 11th, five whole days, the unfortunate Field- 
Marshal remained in a state of stupefaction, crushed 
under the triple weight of his conscience, fear of the 
fate which awaited him, and of universal reprobation. 
In fact, till October 11, he remained at Ulm in the 
same state of stagnation in which we had found him 
when we crossed the Danube, on the 6th. The body 
which he had opposed to us at Donawerth, under 
Kienmayer, more fortunate than himself, had taken 
flight towards Austria; the one he had summoned from 
the Tyrol was destroyed at Vertigen; that which he 
had left at Meningen, having neither received orders 
to rejoin him, nor to take flight to the mountains, re- 
trenched itself isolated in that town. On the other hand 
his advance-guard, which was resisting Ney on the left 
bank of the Danube, crippled by the loss of 4ooo men 
at Guntzburg, was on October gth, thrown back upon 
Ulm, upon which point Mack had also been driven 
with his 60,000 men. It may be remembered that, in 
1800, Aray, having been in the same way turned and 
broken up by Moreau on both banks of the Danube, 
turned round upon our right wing at Nordlingen, and, 
escaping without striking a blow, was able to take up 
a position again between our army and Austria; why 
not imitate him to-day? Mack is near Prince Ferdinand, 
and is responsible for him; will he allow an Archduke 
to be taken in Ulm, with himself and his army? 


CHAPTER XVE 


(Wie Nie 


AD Mack with his 60,000 men passed through 

Ulm, leaving a detachment there, and thrown him- 
self on the left bank which the Grand Army had quitted, 
he could have dispersed by way of that bank, de- 
molishing the bridges which he would leave on the 
right of his passage. During this retreat he might 
have picked up or destroyed our camp-followers, our 
great parks of artillery, our baggage, and might pos- 
sibly have triumphantly returned to Bohemia, where 
he could have rejoined the Russians. 

But the distracted and feeble mind of such a general 
was not in accord with so sudden and thorough a course, 
so that instead of coming to a decision, he lost four 
whole days. 

On the night of the 14th to the 15th the Austrian 
chiefs met at a council where they could not come to 
an agreement, and Mack was only able to make 
himself listened to by the help of a power of authority, 
signed by his Emperor which had hitherto been held 
in reserve. But this general, who could neither 
flee nor defend himself, continued to hang on from 
day to day, the sport of the enemy and of circum- 


stances. Verneck, however, and 12,000 men separated 
166 


MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 107 


from him, were on the road to Nordlingen; it was 
only then that the Archduke, escaping by night from 
Ulm with some thousand horse, hastened to join him. 
Mack was in hopes that they would thus be able to 
get as far as Bohemia. As for himself, with the rest 
of his soldiers, of whose very number he was ignorant, 
left without provisions or means of retreat in Ulm 
itself, and on the entrenched heights which look 
down upon it, he was heard to exclaim: that he 
should defend himself there and divert attention from 
the flight of the Archduke; that the Russians would 
have hastened up within a week, and that Napoleon, 
in his turn caught between two fires, would be obliged 
either to flee or surrender. Such was the gist of 
Mack’s speeches, for harassed as he was, words in default 
of deeds had not yet failed him. 

But on the next day, the 15th, attacked on both 
banks of the river, from the heights which surround 
Ulm he descended into the town, where, having been 
in danger of being burnt out on the 16th, he received 
a flag of truce during the night, and agreed to give 
himself up on the 25th if the blockade had not been 
raised by the Russian army. Vainly, and on three 
different occasions, first this offer of truce, secondly 
Berthier, and lastly the Emperor himself in an in- 
terview with Lichtenstein, allowed Mack six days 
only, but he held out obstinately for eight. These 
two days respite, which in no wise really altered his 
position, seemed to his fevered imagination to be the 
only means of saving his responsibility, his honour 
(which was already lost), and even Austria itself. 
Finally, on the evening of the 1st, he obtained this 
vain concession. Having signed his capitulation it was 


168 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


to be consummated on the 25th, and up to the next 
day, the 19th, the unhappy man, apparently consoled, 
seemed to triumph in this delay which he had obtained, 
as if it had been a victory. 

But on the morning of October t1oth, thirty-six 
hours later, being summoned to the Imperial quarters, 
he there learnt: that on the 16th, a day out from Ulm, 
the Archduke had already been attacked by Murat 
with a loss of 3,000 men, and that a little further on 
before Neresheim, attacked for the second time on the 
17th, the prince had abandoned his main body and 
taken flight with a tew squadrons towards Bohemia; 
that on October 18th and 1gth near Nordlingen, only 
two good days’ march from Ulm, Verneck and the rest 
of his 20,000 men who had left Ulm eight days earlier, 
with 600 carriages and guns with which they had 
been burdened, had laid down their arms; that on the 
other hand Bernadotte, Davout and the Bavarians, 
in short 60,000 men were occupying Bavaria where — 
the Russians had not yet shown up. Then, crushed 
under the weight of so many misfortunes, the unhappy 
man, losing all hope, also lost the little presence of 
mind which still remained to him, and his distress was 
so great that he was on the point of swooning away. 
Perfectly distracted he gave up every effort, even to 
the last service which he could have rendered his 
country by keeping our army before Ulm to the 25th, 
and, completely subjugated by Napoleon’s ascendency, 
he not only renounced the two days concession which 
had been so much ‘contested;) but acreed jon the 
next day, the 2oth of October, to give up Ulm with 
his arms, his horses, the 33,000 men that were left to 
him, and the time which was so valuable to his adver- 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 169 


sary; thus hastening by five days his own loss and 
that of Austria. 

Now that by this summary we have been able to 
view this important event in its entirety and that I am 
more at liberty to descant on its details; passing from 
history to memoirs, I shall proceed from my notes of 
each evening to reproduce in detail the narrative of 
these fourteen days of manceuvres, engagements, 
and of a capitulation which will ever remain famous. 
Without that, especially as far as concerns us, 
I should only have presented the outside of things 
and too little the men themselves. 

I have already said that on October 6th the Emperor 
having outstripped and turned Mack, had slept at 
Nordlingen. He had already during that evening 
pushed on to Donawerth in his impatience to see the 
Danube for the first time, and to assure and hasten the 
success of his manceuvre. On October 7th, about one 
o’clock in the day, having returned to the bank of the 
Danube, he encouraged the workers to repair the broken 
bridge; the rain which never ceased during that month, 
and which caused the first part of this campaign to be 
so trying, had then just begun; wrapped up in our 
cloaks, Mortier, Duroc, Caulaincourt, Rapp, and I, 
surrounded Napoleon, receiving and executing the 
orders which he kept on multiplying. At one moment 
I would be despatched to Rain to push on Marshal 
Soult, and the next to hurry Vandamme’s passage 
beyond the mouth of the Leck. On coming back I 
always found him stationed in front of this burnt-down 
bridge of Donawerth, and in his haste to see it recon- 
structed on both banks, he ordered me to cross the 
stream too soon. This was the first danger to be 


170 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


braved and the most perilous. <A single log of wood 
which was long and narrow and badly secured, had 
only just been thrown across from one pile to another. 
But under the eyes of Bonaparte I sped off with such 
an impetus, that in spite of the insecurity of this 
beam which was quivering under my feet, and the 
hindrance of my cloak which impeded my movements 
as it flapped in the wind, I reached the middle of the 
second arch without wavering. Once there, however, 
the oscillations of the frail and shaky foot-hold caused 
me to stagger. I was losing my equilibrium; beneath 
me the charred and half-burnt joists of the bridge, 
which had fallen into the stream the night before, 
were whirling round its foundations with a tumult in 
which I seemed about to be ingulfed and crushed; 
neither able to advance nor retreat. I was suspended 
over this abyss and already swaying towards it, feeling 
myself a lost man, when an exclamation from Napoleon: 
“Good God, he will be killed!” gave me fresh courage; 
this cry from his heart seemed to strengthen mine, and 
with a supreme effort I pulled myself together and 
managed to reach the right bank. 

An order which I received the next day, October 
8th, is all the more deeply impressed on my memory 
because ten years later, a hesitation exactly resembling 
the one of which I was a witness occasioned the loss 
of the Grand Army and Waterloo, and the destruction 
of Napoleon himself! The Emperor, who was still at 
Donawerth, had sent me that day towards Augsburg, 
bearing an order to Saint Hilaire’s division to take 
prompt possession of that town. I joined him not far 
from the latter, abreast of Markl, a village on the 
edge of the road. Saint Hilaire, hearing the roar of 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. Mg/a 


the guns on his right, had just halted there, uncertain 
if he should not turn to that side; but acting on the 
order which I had brought him, he was again setting for- 
ward, when one of Murat’s officers, hastening from Ver- 
tingen came, in the name of that prince who was engaged 
in the action whose firing we had heard, to summon 
him to the rescue. 

Saint Hilaire, a man full of heart and intelligence, 
immediately made up his mind. ‘ You hear,” he said to 
me, “I must make as much haste as possible, the can- 
“nonading compels me; notwithstanding contrary orders, 
“in such an unforeseen case it is a matter of principle 
“to respond to the call.” And he immediately turned 
the head of his column to the right, upon Vertingen. 

But as generally happens, he had not taken a hundred 
steps in that direction, than harassed by the responsibility 
which he was assuming, he asked my opinion. Frankly 
I knew nothing about it, but at all hazards, thinking 
it my duty to impress the object of my mission upon 
him, I insisted on the importance which the Emperor 
attached to it. The general’s anxiety increasing, he 
stopped short and exclaimed that I was in the right, 
then turning back his column, he resumed the road to 
Augsburg. Then came the turn of Murat’s envoy, this 
officer in desperation so vividly describing the prince’s 
peril that Saint Hilaire, much moved, was not able 
to resist him, and for a second time started off towards 
Vertingen. 

But while on the march, apostrophizing me: “ You 
“are attached to the person of the Emperor,” he said. 
“You should know his motives.” —“ He did not confide 
“them to me,” I answered, “but it is evident that 
“we are turning the Austrian army, and Augsburg 


WB MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“being on the line of operations or of retreat, it is of 
“the most urgent importance to seize it. As for Prince 
“Murat, he can just as well be supported from Donawerth, 
“which I left full of troops.” This reflection seeming 
to strike him, he made another halt in his perplexity, 
and, changing his mind, once more set his column on 
the road towards the capital of Suabia. 

But that cursed west wind which was drenching us 
with rain, also bore us the sound of the cannonading 
with greater distinctness, and restored his former scruples. 
Once more he halted. “(ood God,” he said, “ what 
“a position! The guns are coming nearer, how can I 
“draw back? The Emperor did not know of this 
“battle when you left Donawerth.” I was obliged 
to own the truth of this. “His own brother-in-law,” 
“he exclaimed, “how can I abandon him when he is 
“calling upon me, when he is perhaps completely over- 
“whelmed. It is impossible.” And for the third time 
the worthy general turned his column again and 
dashed across country, abandoning Augsburg for 
Vertingen. 

I was marching on with him, myself in a state of 
uncertainty, and had almost given up the idea of per- 
suading him, when the head of his staff pointed out 
to me that night was drawing on, and that we 
could not possibly arrive on the scene till after the 
issue of the conflict was decided. This being to my 
advantage, I again returned to the charge, representing 
to the general that if he persisted in this direction 
when it was too late to respond to the prince’s appeal, 
he would be disobeying the Emperor’s order which 
could still be executed. This new point of view 
seemed to decide Saint Hilaire, who changed his mind 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 173 


for the fourth time, after having spent two hours in 
wandering from one direction to another, finally resum- 
_ing that of Augsburg. Feeling sure this time that he 
would continue on his way, and believing that my mission 
was fulfilled, I turned back to give an account of it. 

But it was my turn to be in fault: as the bearer 
of so important an order which should have been 
executed at once, I ought to have remained to see 
to it. Had I done so, my report would have been 
more interesting and useful, and Napoleon would 
have been better satisfied. Not that when he saw 
me, he made any observation about it; he was still 
standing before Donawerth, dressed as I had left him 
the night before, and it was then two hours after 
midnight. Out of consideration for Saint Hilaire I did 
not descant on his long hesitation, I only mentioned 
the place and the hour when I had succeeded in 
bringing him to a decision. “All the better,” said the 
Emperor, “as the enemy was well beaten at Vertin- 
gen.” Then leading me up to a side table, he added: 
“Come, where did you leave Saint Hilaire? show me 
“on this map.” Having consulted my own to some pur- 
pose, I was able to do this without hesitation, and I 
had taken note ot the distances on the spot, so that 
I could draw conclusions as to the hour when 
Augsburg must have been occupied. “Very well,” 
said Napoleon, “now let us go and rest.” He did 
nothing of the kind himself, as can be proved by his 
dispatches to his marshals which were dated that very 
night, and I remember myself that three hours after 
I had left him, when I was again summoned to him 
at daybreak on October gth, I found him on horse- 
back on the right bank of the Danube. 


174 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


Almost as soon as we were on the march, Duroc said 
to me: “Tell me what happened yesterday with Saint 
“Hilaire.” . 1 did \so.. 2 Uhus,” he said,“ youmrealin 
“believed and told the Emperor that Augsburg must 
“have been last night in the occupation of that general?” 
—“Most certainly,” I answered.—“ Well,” continued 
Duroc, “it is just the contrary. Would you believe 
“that directly you had left him, another spell of hesi- 
“tation on his part made him return to Vertingen, this 
“time for good. It was past midnight when he arrived 
“on the battle-field, and as you may well imagine, he 
“found neither friends nor foes; so that wanting to be 
“everywhere, he was nowhere, neither where he thought 
“he was going, nor where he was wanted to go. His 
“hesitation caused him to fall into the very disasters 
“which he was trying to avoid, so that he has been 
“worse than useless.” 

I was dismayed by this error which had become 
inexcusable; it would, however, be difficult to say what 
Saint Hilaire really ought to have done in such an 
alternative. But henceforth and after the fatal example 
of Waterloo, what Frenchman in such a case would he- 
sitate to repeat the first words of the general to me: 
“T must go at once, the cannonading compels me, and 
“in spite of contrary orders, the case being unforeseen, 
“it is a matter of principle to obey ‘the call”? 

That day, October gth, the Emperor pushed on as 
far as Vertingen, to examine, according to his custom, 
the spot where the battle had taken place, to judge 
of the moves, to review and reward the conquerors, 
and thus in the glow of success, to fertilize the field 
of this first victory. His words, especially those ad- 
dressed to Klein’s division, excited them to the highest 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. TS 


pitch, not only as a mass but individually. To quote 
one example amongst others, a non-commissioned officer 
of dragoons who had been cashiered the night before 
by his colonel, saved his life the next day at the risk 
of his own. Napoleon accosted him. “I was wrong 
“the day before yesterday,” answered the soldier, “ yes- 
“terday I only did my duty.” Upon which the Emperor 
decorated him amidst the acclamations of his comrades. 

A certain major had been cited; he was imme- 
diately admitted into the Imperial Guard. 

Exelmans, who had already attracted attention by 
his rapid insight and intrepid firmness, and who dared 
at once to put into execution the thing he advised, 
had been the first to stop the march of the enemy’s 
flank by charging home upon the head of his column; 
then making his dragoons dismount, he had with this 
improvised infantry carried the village of Vertingen. 

“T know it is impossible to be braver than you are,” 
said the Emperor, “and I create you an officer of the 
“Legion of Honour!” This was a double promotion 
for the officer, and the emulation which it caused can 
be imagined. 

On the roth the Emperor continued as far as Bergau, 
whence he went on to reconnoitre the enemy up to 
Pfaffenhoffen. He had just written to Josephine: 
“That the Russians were still beyond the Inn; that 
“he was keeping the Austrian army blocked on the 
“Tller, that the enemy being already beaten had lost 
“their heads; that everything predicted the shortest and 
“most brilliant campaign, though carried on in a deluge, 
“the weather being such that he was forced to change 
“his clothes twice a day.” 

At the end of the day his headquarters were 


176 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


established at Augsburg where he only arrived at ten 
clock at night and remained two days. We have 
seen by the preceding summary what detained him 
there; but our subject now concerning Napoleon and 
ourselves specially, other details are necessary. 

At this time and after the passage of the Danube, 
the Grand Army, divided in two, was at the same time 
facing Austria and France: Austria, with 60,000 men, 
masters of Bavaria, under Davout and Bernadotte; 
Mack and France, with 140,000 men scattered in 
Suabia from Albeck up to Langsberg; the greater 
part of whom it was now important to unite on the 
point of attack. Napoleon, who had arrived in Augs- 
burg on October 1oth, thus found himself placed 
between these two masses. There he remained till 
October 13th with one eye fixed on Austria where 
he was counting the footsteps of the Russians, the 
other on the Tyrol and the army of the Archduke 
John, whose various corps, detached to relieve 
Mack, were coming up to be beaten separately; 
lastly watching Mack himself whom he had broken 
through the two previous days at Vertingen and at 
Guntzberg, and was now pressing back on Ulm and 
on the Iller. 

However little he held this field-marshal in esteem, 
judging the present by the past, he could not believe 
that Mack with his 80,oo0 men as he thought, should 
not at Ulm follow the example of Mélas at Marengo; 
and that in his hopeless position he would not endeavour 
to seek death or salvation by a battle. 

Two other courses remained open to him; either 
to throw himself into the Alps by Upper Suabia, 
or to fall back upon Bohemia by the left bank of the 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 9/7) 


Danube. Napoleon rendered the first of these impos- 
sible, by pushing Soult from Landsberg and Augsberg 
upon Meningen and Biberach. As for the second, 
whether the Emperor had been misled by the reports 
of Murat, or that he had reckoned too much on Dupont 
seconded by d’Hilliers who had failed him, (both of 
these still occupying the left bank of the Danube 
towards Albeck), he neglected this bank under the 
impression that Mack was waiting for him on the IIler, 
where his magazines were. It was there that he com- 
manded Murat to draw all around him: Lannes, Ney 
himself, Marmont, Soult, 100,000 men, in short. Thence 
resulted Ney’s desperate passage of the right bank 
by the bridges below Ulm, on October goth, followed 
by the too complete abandonment of the left bank of 
the Danube. 

Napoleon had at the outset misled Mack by the 
rapid execution of his first and great manceuvre, and 
in his turn was himself misled by the inconceivable 
and stagnant irresolution of his adversary. On the 
gth, and even more so on the roth, he was so convinced 
that this field-marshal would make some great attempt 
either upon Augsberg or towards the Tyrol, and above 
all that he would assemble his army upon the Iller, 
that supposing Ulm to be almost abandoned, he ordered 
Ney, and then Dupont even by himself, to take possession 
of it. Indeed, on the evening of the roth, he so entirely 
believed in a battle on the Iller that he announced it 
to his marshals with the day and the hour. ‘ Mack,” 
he wrote from Bavaria to Davout and to Bernadotte, 
“will succumb on the Iller on the 14th; and all being 
“over on that side, they would see the Emperor come 


“to their aid with 40,000 men.” 
14 


178 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


But during the night of the 12th to the 13th all had 
changed. A letter from Lannes full of the warlike in- 
stinct which that marshal possessed to so high a degree, 
disclosed to Napoleon the fact that Murat was mis- 
leading him by his reports, that looking only straight 
ahead, he was attracting all to himself and that in 
spite of Ney he had given up to the enemy Du- 
pont and the left bank of the Danube. On the other 
hand the news had just arrived at the Imperial quarters 
of the engagement at Albeck, where Dupont, one against 
four, and abandoned by d’Hilliers, was surrounded; 
and although left conqueror on the battle-field, had 
been obliged to retire leaving his stores behind him. 
This letter of Lannes and the news from Dupont which 
Napoleon had been so far from expecting, at last drew 
his attention to the left bank; he began to be doubtful 
of a battle on the Iller, and the fear of Mack’s retreat 
towards Bohemia by Nordlingen could no longer be 
regarded by him as groundless, for he had just demon- 
strated its possibility. The most lively anxiety took 
instant possession of the mind of Bonaparte. His great 
park of artillery, his reinforcements, his line of advance, 
indeed his line of operation were not sufficiently pro- 
tected on the left bank of the Danube. Mack in Ulm is on 
both banks: it would even seem as if he would profit by 
this advantage to take flight. It was therefore necessary, 
if indeed there were still time, on the one hand sud- 
denly to re-possess himself of the left bank; on the 
other, thoroughly to reconnoitre the enemy along the 
right bank as far as Ulm itself, to obtain a certainty 
as to his intentions on both banks and to keep him 
tenes 

October 13th saw the issue of a hundred instructions, 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 179 


the most important of which was an order to Marshal 
Ney, which he was not able to execute till the next 
day, to recross the Danube at Elchingen that very 
day at all hazards. In his restless anxiety Napoleon 
had already sent me the previous evening to Murat 
as the bearer of orders and to bring back news; and 
the prince, at last discovering his error, had informed 
me that the enemy was no longer before him but had 
crossed to the opposite bank. My instructions were 
to return that night to Guntzberg where the Emperor 
arrived on the 13th at day-break. There, warned by 
me that part of the enemy had been perceived on 
his way, in his astonishment he sent me to recon- 
noitre up stream the bridge of Leiphen which he 
thought was held. This was admitting the very 
possible supposition that the enemy had already been 
able to advance so far from Ulm by going down the 
stream on its left bank to escape us. 

It was not till the afternoon that I found the Emperor 
at Pfaffenhoffen with Murat. On my report that 
Leiphen was full of our troops, but that they did not 
seem to contemplate holding the bridge, he said to 
his brother-in-law with a shrug of the shoulders: “ It 
“is always the same. You see how our orders are 
executed,” It “is “difficult “to ‘say if a’ reproach 
thus worded, was intended for Ney or for Murat; 
but the Emperor evidently perceived that during his 
stay at Augsberg everything had got behindhand; 
that the enemy had been neglected and badly recon- 
noitred; that it would be necessary in the future for 
him to be present everywhere himself, and that he 
could rely only on his own discernment. 

He immediately sent order upon order to Lannes 


180 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


and Marmont to press Ulm closely, and recalled Soult 
there from Meningen; the night reports having arrived, 
he reproached Ney who had only too well obeyed 
orders, for having left Dupont alone on the other bank, 
and reprimanded him for having feebly attacked the 
bridge of Elchingen that evening and having met 
with arepulse. “ He thought it quite right, ” he wrote, 
“to draw the enemy into partial engagements which 
“could only be favourable to us, but that it was necessary 
“above all to avoid risking those slight reverses which 
“raised the courage of the enemy and restored the spirit 
“of an army which had lost it.” 

It must be admitted that from Guntzberg to Pfaffen- 
hoffen, the army presented an aspect of the greatest 
disorder; the roads which were full of ruts, were strewn 
with our Alsatian waggons stuck fast in the mire, 
with their drivers at their wits’ end, and with fallen 
horses dying of hunger and fatigue. Our soldiers 
were rushing right and left, helter-skelter across the 
fields; some looking for food, others using up their 
cartridges shooting the game with which these plains 
abounded. Hearing all this firing, and the whistle of 
the bullets, one might have fancied oneself at the 
advance-posts, and one ran quite as great risk. 

It was difficult to check this licence, for the soldiers 
without rations could only live by pillage, and were 
foraging for their officers. The Emperor passed by without 
appearing to take any notice of this disorder; an inevit- 
able consequence of the myriad rapid movements which 
are requisite to attain the most glorious results. Indeed 
these enormous armies, like giants, require to be seen 
at a distance when defects pass unnoticed, which is 
the case of the world itself, whose whole strikes us 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON LIL 181 


with admiration, but in which so many details appear 
sacrificed to this admirable whole. 

I must confess for my part that I might have made 
my recognizance of the bridge of Leiphen more useful 
to the Emperor. I ought to have made him acquainted 
with its approaches, the configuration of the two banks, 
and above all the fact that the right commanded the 
left one. I neglected insisting on this point, although 
its importance was very great. 

My immediate regrets were at first only a question 
of amour-propre, but became more serious later on. 
Had I, in fact, drawn the attention of the Emperor 
to the facility of this passage which was then free, 
whilst on the contrary that of Elchingen, strongly 
occupied and at two hours distance, was very dangerous 
of access, he would probably have chosen it, or, at 
any rate, he would, by a double attack, have divided 
the enemy’s forces, and thus diminished his resistance. 
The brilliant but bloody action of Elchingen on the 
next day, when Ney, taking the bull by the horns, 
might have met with a repulse, would have been the 
more assured and less costly; thus the smallest details 
are never unimportant and there is no such thing as 
a trifling error in critical moments. My only excuse 
was in my excessive fatigue; however, worn-out as I 
was by a consecutive journey of thirty-six hours, on my 
own horses at first, and then on those of orderlies and 
country people, the Emperor, who was preoccupied 
with what was going on on the other bank, sent me 
several leagues further, with orders to his heavy cavalry 
to reconnoitre along the Danube. It was then that 
Marshal Ney, obeying his orders with too great 
precipitation, had caused the approach of the bridge of 


182 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


Elchingen to be vainly attacked by an insufficient 
advance-guard. While pursuing my way, the sound of 
the firing attracted me to this engagement where I 
should have found myself without a mission, acting 
the useless and unbecoming part of a mere spectator. 
A curious meeting, however, stopped me. I was 
walking across the fields at nightfall when suddenly 
a sentinel from behind a bush, opposing me with his 
bayonet, cried out: “Who goes there!” in such good 
German, that, taking him for one of the enemy, I 
thought I had better rid myself of him before he had 
time to alarm his guard. I therefore answered 
in the same language, and drew my sword which I 
was going to make use of, when, surprised by his 
confidence, I asked him in German: “ What part of 
“the world do you come from?” “From Strasburg,” he 
answered. Then, discovering my mistake, with some 
relief, I must admit, and cured by this adventure of 
my ill-timed martial curiosity, I bethought. myself of 
executing Napoleon’s orders, after which I went 
on to sleep at Guntzberg where the headquarters 
remained, though without the Emperor, who had gone 
to pass the night at Pfaffenhoffen. 

On the next day, October 14th, no longer trusting 
anybody, Napoleon left at daybreak for the castle of 
Hildenhausen, himself to begin the engagement which 
on this side was to drive back the enemy into Ulm. 
Immediately afterwards, going down the bank full 
gallop, he reached the passage of Elchingen where I 
found him at the moment when the 69th regiment, 
overthrowing the enemy on the bridge, had just taken 
possession of it, and when supported beyond it by the 
76th infantry and the 18th, 10th and 3rd dragoons, the 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 183 


Rifles, and Hussars, Ney in three assaults took possession 
of the elevated and formidable height on which is 
situated the thenceforth celebrated abbey of Elchingen. 

Whilst the marshal was thus driving onwards 
up to the foot of Michaelsberg, the true rampart 
of Ulm, Laudon, who was flying with a loss of 6,000 
men, Napoleon had pushed on through the midst of 
reinforcements of all branches who had thrown them- 
selves upon the bridge, and the dead and wounded 
who encumbered it. He was making his way with 
difficulty through this narrow passage, covered with 
blood and wreckage, when noticing that the wounded left 
off moaning to salute him with their customary greet- 
ing, he stopped short. Amongst these was an artillery- 
man whose thigh had been carried away by a cannon 
ball; remarking him specially, he drew near him and 
taking off his own star, placed it in his hand, saying: 
“Take this, it is yours, so is the Hotel of the Invalides 
“where you may still have the consolation of living on 
“happily.” —“ No, no,” replied the brave soldier, “there 
“has been too much letting of blood this time! But no 
“matter, long live the Emperor!” 

On the other side of the bridge a grenadier of the 
former army of Egypt lay on his back with his face 
exposed to the pelting rain. In the excitement of 
action he was still crying: “ Forwards!” to his com- 
rades. The Emperor recognised him as he was passing 
by, and taking off his own cloak, he threw it over 
him, saying: “Try to bring this back to me, and in 
“exchange I will give you the decoration and the 
“pension that you have so well deserved.” 

Then from the top of the steep height of Elchingen, 
giving his whole attention to the engagement, and 


184 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


seeing that victory was decided, and the left bank at 
last retaken, he sent General Mouton on to Albeck, 
where the hazardous position of Dupont disquieted him; 
and crossing the bridge, rapidly rode up the right 
bank beyond Hildenhausen, desiring to assure himself 
of the success of this other attack which had been 
engaged by him at daybreak. Decided for the future 
only to believe his own eyes, he drew near, remaining 
so long on a hillock near the enemy, that we were 
obliged to turn ourselves into sharp shooters, and even 
to open a pistol fire upon the Austrian dragoons to 
drive them away from his person. Night was falling 
before he retired satisfied, and he returned again to 
the right bank to sleep at Ober-Falheim, near Elchingen, 
at the house of a village priest where Thiard made his 
bed, and one of his aides-de-camp made him an ome- 
lette; but as everything had been pillaged, he had to 
do without all he required; neither dry clothing nor 
anything else could be had, not even his Chambertin 
Wine, causing him to remark gaily, “ That he had never 
“gone without that, not even in the midst of the Egyptian 
desert=s 

On October 15th, at three o’clock in the morning, 
which was his habit, because the reports of the day 
before were then to hand, he dictated his orders, to 
the effect that during the day, Mack was to be com- 
pletely thrown back and hemmed in between the two 
banks within the walls of Ulm. He already suspected 
that a troop of the enemy might evade them by Nord- 
lingen, but he did not then foresee a sudden attack 
on his rear towards Donawerth. He took the pre- 
cautions which were then necessary. 

As soon as it was light he took up his position in 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 185 


the abbey of Elchingen where he drew up the order 
of attack on Mount St. Michael, towering over Ulm, 
and the key to that town. Mid-day was the hour 
decided upon for this last blow which was to be struck 
by Ney, supported on the left by Lannes, with a reserve 
of the guard and our heavy cavalry. 

Towards eleven o’clock, Napoleon in his impatience 
mounted his horse again, and proceeded on the road 
to Ulm, even passing Ney’s advance posts and pushing 
on as far as the foot of Mount St. Michael. Twenty-five 
mounted riflemen of his guard and a few of us alone were 
following him. He was getting impatient of the delays 
in the arrival of his columns which was the inevitable 
result of the passage of the bridge of Elchingen behind 
us, and was anxious that it should be over. At last 
when some of the enemy’s balls fell near us, not being 
able to take another step without grave imprudence, 
he stopped and called me to him: “Take my riflemen,” 
he said, “go to the front and bring me back some 
prisoners.” Thus began the battle of Ulm. It was 
the Emperor in person who engaged it with his 
escort. 

The enemy had perceived him;—it occupied the top 
of the hill, and a squadron of Uhlans barred the road. 
My own squad which was badly officered by its 
lieutenant, missed its charge, stopped and nearly caused 
me to be taken as well as a brigadier who alone had 
followed me, and had been wounded at my side by 
the thrust of a lance. Getting back dissatisfied, as may 
be imagined, I reprimanded the riflemen, their officer 
especially, and dispersed them as sharpshooters. Then 
the firing began. 

Why I remember this circumstance, in itself not very 


186 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


remarkable, is on account of a strange meeting 
which I had just made unconsciously, and that of the 
temporary disgrace which the whole body of riflemen 
of our guard contrived to draw upon itself that day. 
Before my departure from Paris for the army, a female 
relative of the young Prince of Windischgraetz had 
recommended him to me in case he were taken pri- 
soner; and on the contrary, it was this self-same 
brilliant young officer who at the head of his platoon 
of Uhlans had very nearly taken me. As for the 
mounted riflemen of the guard, some spirit of false 
pride had taken possession of this picked corps. They 
had become so haughty that they not only looked 
upon the advance post duty with disdain, but on the 
night of this action, on their return to Elchingen, they 
treated the Imperial livery with disrespect, taking pos- 
session of the best places for their horses, by hook or 
by crook, and leaving the others outside. They were 
soon, however, set down, for Napoleon, in a rage, sent 
them off at once to his brother-in-law, and two days 
after, being drafted into his cavalry without any 
distinction of person, the entire corps made amends 
for the error of a few amongst them by contributing 
to make 20,000 men lay down their arms. 

The firing that I had just initiated soon extended 
over the whole line commanded by Ney. We had 
thought that we were covering the Emperor, but he 
had grown tired of these skirmishes and the never 
ceasing rain, and had sought shelter at Hasslach whilst 
waiting for his guard and the corps of Marshal Lannes. 
I found him in a farm house of this hamlet, dozing by 
the side of a stove, whilst a young drummer was doz- 
ing also on the other side. Somewhat surprised, at 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 187 


this spectacle, I was told that they had wanted to 
send the child elsewhere; but the drummer boy would 
not hear of it, saying, “That there was plenty of 
“room for everybody, that he was wounded and cold, 
“that he was very comfortable, and that he meant to 
“stop there.” On hearing this Napoleon began to 
laugh, saying: “That he must be allowed to remain 
as he made such a point of it.” So that the Emperor 
and the drummer slept side by side, surrounded by a 
circle of generals and high dignitaries, who were stand- 
ing whilst waiting for orders. 

The cannonading, however, was drawing nearer, 
and Napoleon aroused himself about every ten minutes 
to send off messengers to hasten Lannes’ arrival, when 
that marshal entered abruptly with the exclamation: 

“Sire! what are you thinking of? You are sleeping, 
“while Ney, single-handed, is fighting against the whole 
“of the Austrian army!”—“ Why has he engaged 


“them 2” answered the Emperor. “I told him to wait; 
“but it is just like him; he cannot see the enemy 
“without falling upon him!” -—“ That is all very well,” 


“retorted Lannes, “but one of his brigades has been 
“repulsed. My grenadiers are here; we must hurry 
“up; there is no time to be lost!” And he carried 
off Napoleon with him, who in his turn becoming 
excited, pushed on so far ahead that Lannes, not 
being able to persuade him to stop, at last roughly 
seized his horse’s bridle, and forced him back into a 
less dangerous position. 

Ney had indeed refused to defer his attack; his left 
wing had just been shaken by a sally of 10,000 men, 
notwithstanding which he had ordered Dumas to tell 
the Emperor, “that he would see to all, and that he 


188 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“answered for everything, and had no need of Marshal 
“Lannes; glory was not a thing to be shared!” 

The imminence of the danger was of short duration. 
In a very few moments, Bertrand with three batta- 
lions carried the retrenchment of Michael’s Berg; and 
Suchet, on the other side, detached by Lannes, soon 
crowned the heights of the Frauenberg. Thus master 
of the outskirts, the Emperor from the summit of the 
first of these hills, was able to contemplate at his feet 
within half-range of his shells, the town of Ulm 
completely surrounded, and full of the enemy packed 
closely together, without provisions, without forage, 
unable to move within its walls. 

From that moment, knowing that his prey could not 
escape him, Napoleon began to set his lines in order, 
to unite and strengthen his positions, to threaten the 
town with a few shells, and when night came on he 
left to pass it at Elchingen, where I joined him too 
late to fulfil my duty of establishing his headquar- 
ters, and seeing after his guard. The fact was that 
at the hottest moment of the day, led away by curiosity 
and a desire to be one of the first to enter Ulm, I had 
left Napoleon to follow the attack of the 17th light 
infantry on the gate called “Stuttgart.” It was at the 
very moment when Colonel Vedel, entering pell-mell 
with the enemy, had lost the half of his first battalion 
in Ulm, and had been taken with the remainder. 
Having got away from the scrimmage, I went off 
to seek my fortune elsewhere, with such recklessness 
that I was on the point of falling into an ambuscade 
when Marshal Ney, who was behind me on the slope 
of the Michael’s Berg, saved me from this misfor- 
tune. 


- OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 189 


I was somewhat roughly admonished about this the 
next day by Rapp and Caulaincourt, who asked me if 
I thought I was in the army entirely on my own 
account and for my own pleasure. They added that 
as an officer of the Emperor’s staff, my duty was to 
remain within hail, to be at hand to convey his orders, 
and that while waiting to receive them, I could take 
observations, if I wanted to do so, within my range 
of vision. This well-merited lesson was all the more 
useful to me in that while recalling me to my duties 
as one of the staff, it caused me to reflect on the 
means by which I could best fulfil them. 

I indulged in this examination of conscience while 
reposing on the straw at our halting place, Elchingen; 
and it was probably of a very different kind to that 
of the monk to whose pallet I had succeeded. Imagin- 
ing that our part of the campaign was over, I only 
got up in time to aid the Emperor to mount his horse, 
and to repair my inadvertence of the previous day 
by taking possession of the abbey. Its inspection 
was a sad and painful business, for the horrors of war 
asserted themselves with only too much prominence. 
To begin with, the ambulance was installed there, as 
I soon knew from the cries of the wounded who were 
undergoing amputation, and whom it would be my 
duty to see and encourage. But a still more terrible 
sight awaited me. 

I was going over every part of this immense gothic 
edifice, visiting the guards and rectifying the orders 
when, passing by a dark cellar, I thought I heard 
stifled moans mingled with noisy singing and bursts 
of laughter. I stopped to question a sentinel who 
told me that the same groans of pain broken by out- 


190 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


bursts of mirth, had excited his astonishment. We 
listened together, and then hearing nothing but the 
chink of glasses I was going to pass on when another 
feeble, plaintive cry reached our ears. 

Much troubled, after having vainly sounded all the 
surrounding walls, I went into a low-pitched roorn 
whence proceeded the convivial sounds. A party of 
couriers and valets were at table making merry with 
the wines which they had just laid hands upon. I 
told them to be silent, enquiring if they had not heard 
moans and groans from some point quite near to 
them. They replied that they had, but not knowing 
what it meant, they did not trouble themselves about 
it. “But several of you slept here last night,” I said, 
“and in the stillness, you must have heard even 
“more plainly.” They gave the same answer, “ that 
“the moaning had disturbed them, and that they had 
“also been annoyed by a foul, corpse-like smell, but 
“that they had been able to fall asleep again.” This 
was too much for me: “Get up at once,” I exclaimed, 
“and follow me.” 

Our researches took some time, but at last in this 
very cellar which they were occupying, behind a heap 
of planks, we discovered a massive door which seemed 
to have been carefully hidden from view. For some 
time it resisted our attempts to open it, but when open, 
such a fetid smell issued forth that I drew back; I had, 
however, seen enough to force myself to overcome 
my disgust. 

This cellar of small size, though fairly well lighted, 
had disclosed to me in a glance every torture of suf- 
fering, every manifestation of agony and misery. I 
have witnessed many horrible scenes but the details 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. Ig! 


of this one will ever remain graven on my memory. 

The door had been barricaded by the bodies of 
Austrian soldiers who had died of hunger or of their 
wounds, and who having pulled the door upon them- 
selves, had not had the strength to open it again. 
One of their officers was lying there in a dying con- 
dition though still breathing, but almost suffocated by _ 
the unfortunates who had expired while they were 
lying on him. Further on many bodies were stretched 
out here and there, some of which had their arms 
enawed off; of these some bore an expression of rage, 
others were in an attitude of prayer. In the middle 
of the cellar, a second officer, all bloodstained, tried to 
raise himself on his knees when he heard us enter ; 
he extended his hands to us, but fell forward in his 
weakness, first on his hands, then on his forehead, 
frothing at the mouth, and gave up his last breath with 
the death rattle in his throat. A third officer was 
crouched on a table which he had probably mounted 
to reach the air hole and cry for help; his head 
wagged from one side to another, and his hands moved 
about as if seeking a hold on something to cling to, 
the light of day, the outer world, the life that was 
ebbing away!.... But enough—perhaps too much; 
courage fails me to continue. In short, these un- 
fortunates, dead or dying of their wounds, of hunger, 
and above all of thirst, numbered about fourteen or 
fifteen, amongst whom hardly three could possibly be 
saved. Unfortunately I had only discovered them 
on the third day of their agony ; it was during the night 
before last, in an endeavour to save themselves from 
the excesses of victory, that they had inflicted this tor- 
ture upon themselves. 


192 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


Whilst I was engaged in this sad inspection, the 
Emperor who had been falsely informed of the flight 
of the Archduke, believed him to be on his way 
towards Biberach and the Alps. He counted on his 
retreat being cut off by Marshal Soult. Again on 
the positions of the Michael’s Berg which had been 
conquered the previous night he was cannonading 
Ulm, piling up fascines, and threatening an assault on 
this town and army which were already surrounded 
and dominated on all sides. 

Mack, on his side, a prey to the animadversions of 
his generals, was telling them that the Russians would 
soon arrive, being on their way to succour them; and 
he forbade them on their honour, even to pronounce 
the word surrender. But he contradicted himself by 
asking Marshal Ney on that very day, Oct. 16th, for a 
suspension of arms, who, however, made short work 
of his appeal, vouchsafing no other reply than the 
eloquence of his pieces of ordnance. 

The Emperor had just returned to Elchingen; and 
the night of the 16th to the 17th of October had com- 
menced. As soon as he heard of these parleyings, 
which indeed he had expected, he sent word by letter 
to France and elsewhere that he held the Austrian 
army prisoner; that it would capitulate within an hour, 
and, sending for me, he gave me verbal orders with 
brief and concise instructions, to go and negotiate the 
conditions of the capitulation with the Field-marshal. 

I shall now proceed to reproduce the narrative of 
this event in the same terms in which I drew it up 
a little later, from notes taken on the spot, for Gene- 
ral Dumas. This general was then engaged in writing 
a summary of the campaign in which my report figures 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 193 


as piece justificative. The very few modifications 
which may be remarked in this document render it 
more conformable to the original notes. 


IMPERIAL HEADQUARTERS OF ELCHINGEN. 
OCTOBER 17th. 


Last night, 24th Vendémiaire (October 16th), the Em- 
peror called me into his study, and ordered me to 
enter Ulm, and make Mack agree to surrender 
in five days, or to grant him six if he absolutely 
required them. Such were my instructions. The night 
was pitch dark, and a furious gale had risen; I was 
very nearly blown over several times during the storm. 
It was pouring with rain, and I had to travel by cross 
country roads, avoiding the bogs where man, horse 
and mission might come to an untimely end. I arrived 
nearly to the gates of the town without meeting our 
advance posts: there were not any to be seen; sen- 
tinels, vedettes, guards, had gone under shelter, the 
parks of artillery even were abandoned, there were no 
fires and no stars. JI wandered about for three hours 
striving to find the general, and I passed through 
several villages where I vainly interrogated those of 
our troops who were occupying the various houses. 

At last I discovered a trumpeter of the artillery, 
half drowned in the mud under an artillery waggon, 
where he had taken shelter. He was stiff with cold. 
Together we approached the ramparts of Ulm where 
we were probably expected, for at our first call, M. 
de la Tour, an officer who spoke very good French, 


presented himself to conduct me to the field-marshal. 
15 


194 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


He bandaged my eyes and made me ascend by the 
fortifications. I ventured on remarking to my conductor 
that there was no need of a bandage on such a very 
dark night, but he said it was customary. It seemed 
to me rather a long way, and I took advantage of 
this to make my guide talk, with a view of finding 
out what eminent chiefs were in the town. To this 
end I complained of fatigue, asking if Marshal Mack’s 
quarters were far from those of the Archduke. ‘ They 
are contiguous,” answered M.-de la Tour, from which 
I concluded that we held in Ulm, with the prince, all 
the remainder of the Austrian army. In course of 
conversation J felt confirmed in this conjecture, which 
the departure of the Archduke at that very moment 
had rendered an erroneous one. 

We at last arrived in an inn where the general-in- 
chief was lodging; it might then be about three hours 
after midnight. This general seemed to me to be tall, 
old and pale, the expression of his countenance denoted 
a keen imagination, and his features were drawn by 
an anxiety which he vainly endeavoured to conceal. 

I announced my name and after the exchange ofa 
few compliments, I entered on my subject by telling 
him that I came from the Emperor to call upon him 
to surrender, and to settle with him the conditions of 
the capitulation. He seemed to find these expressions 
unpalatable, and he would not at first agree that it 
was a necessity for him to listen to them. On this, 
however, I insisted, dwelling on the fact that having 
received me after his demand for a suspension of 
arms, I should naturally conclude, as the Emperor 
had done, that he fully realized his position; but he 
replied impatiently, that it would soon be completely 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 195 


altered, that the Russian army was approaching, that 
it would extricate him and place us between two fires, 
and that perhaps it would be we who would capitulate. 
I retorted that in his position it was not surprising he 
was ignorant of what was going on in Austria, because 
we had entirely cut him off from it; that in consequence 
it devolved upon me to inform him that Marshals 
Davout and Bernadotte, and the Bavarian army, were 
occupying Ingolstadt and Munich, and that their ad- 
vance posts were on the Inn where no one had yet 
heard anything of the Russians. “ May I be the great- 
“est jackass,” exclaimed Marshal Mack in a rage, “if 
“T do not know on positive authority that the Rus- 
“sians are at Dachau! Do they think they can humbug 
“me like this? Am I to be treated like a child? No! 
“M. de Segur, if I am not succoured in a week, I 
“agree to surrender my position, and that my soldiers 
“should be prisoners of war, and their officers prison- 
“ers on parole. By then there would have been 
“time for succour to reach me, and I should have 
“fulfilled my duty. That succour will come, I am 
“certain.” —“I have the honour again to tell you, sir,” 
I retorted, “that we are not only masters of Dachau, 
“but of Munich and Bavaria, up tothe Inn. Besides, 
“allowing your assertion were true, and that the Rus- 
“sians are at Dachau, five days would be sufficient for 
“them to come and attack us, and His Majesty has 
“ granted them.” —“No, sir,” resumed the marshal, “I de- 
“mand eight days. I will not listen to any other 
“proposition. I must have eight days, they are indis- 
“pensable to vindicate my responsibility.” —“ Thus,” I 
continued, “the difficulty lies in the difference between 
“five and eight days. I confess that I cannot under- 


196 MEMOIRS OF AN ATDE-DE-CAMP 


“stand the importance which Your Excellency attaches 
“to this, when His Majesty is before you at the head 
“of more than 100,000 men, and when the corps of the 
“Marshals Davout and Bernadotte, and the Bavarian 
“army would quite suffice to delay the march of the 
“Russians by these three days, even supposing them to 
“be where they are very far from being at present.” — 
“They are at Dachau,” repeated the marshal. “So be 
“it, Baron,” I exclaimed. “Let us even say at Augs- 
“burg, all the more reason that we should wish to finish 
“with you as soon as possible. Do not force us to take 
“Ulm by storm, for instead of five days’ delay, the Em- 
“peror would be here in a few hours.” —“ My dear sir,” 
replied the general-in-chief, “do not suppose that 
“15,000 men will let themselves be taken so easily. It 
“would cost you dear.”—-“ A few hundred men,” I re- 
plied, “while for you it would mean the loss of your 
“whole army, and the destruction of Uim, which Ger- 
“many would consider your doing; in short, all the 
“horrors of a siege which His Majesty desires to avoid 
“by the proposition he authorized me to make to you.” 
~—“You had better say,” exclaimed the marshal, “ that 
“it would cost you 10,000 men, the strength of Ulm is 
“sufficiently well known.”—‘“It consists,” I resumed, 
“in the surrounding heights which we are occupying.” 
—“Tt is impossible, Sir,” he answered, “that you 
“should not be aware of the strength of Ulm.”— 
“Without a doubt,” I answered, “all the more that we 
“can see down into it.”—“Very well, Sir,” then said 
the unfortunate general, “ you see men who are ready 
“to defend it to the last extremity, if your Emperor 
“will not give them eight days. I can hold on some 
“time. There are three thousand horses in Ulm, and 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 197 


“sooner than surrender, we would eat them up with a 
“great deal more pleasure than you would if you were 
“in our place.”—* Your horses!” I exclaimed, “ah! 
“Marshal, you must indeed be in sad straits already if 
“you are thinking of such a sorry resource!” 

The marshal hastened to affirm that he had ten days’ 
stores, but I did not believe it. The day was beginning 
to break, and we had made no progress ; I might grant 
six days, but the baron so obstinately held out for eight, 
that, considering the concession of a day quite useless, 
I would not mention it. I therefore took my leave, 
telling him that my instructions commanded me to be 
back before day, and that in the event of a refusal I 
was to convey to Marshal Ney as I passed by, orders 
to begin the attack. On this General Mack complained 
of the marshal’s rudeness towards the bearer of a flag 
of truce to whom he would not listen. I took advan- 
tage of this to say that this marshal was indeed of a 
most hot-headed and impetuous disposition and inca- 
pable of self-restraint ; that the body of men which he 
commanded was not only the most numerous but the 
nearest to them; that he was impatiently awaiting 
orders to storm the place, which I should deliver to him 
on my departure from Ulm. 

The old field-marshal would not be intimidated; he 
insisted on his eight days, and that I should convey 
the proposition to the Emperor. 

This unhappy general was ready to sign the loss 
of Austria and his own, and yet in this hopeless posi- 
tion, when he must have suffered cruelly in every way, 
he would not give in; his mind retained its faculties 
and his arguments were lively and tenacious. He de- 
fended the only thing that remained to him, time; either 


198 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


because he really thought the Russian army near 
enough to come to his succour, or that he sought to 
retard the downfall of Austria of which he was the 
cause, and to give her a few days longer to prepare 
for it. Lost himself, he still struggled for her. He was 
a man of conversation rather than of action. Bewil- 
dering himself by vain conjectures, he tried to play a 
game of diamond cut diamond. It is also possible 
that he may have desired to turn our attention from 
the flight of the 50,000 men of whose escape by 
Nordlingen we had just been informed. 

This morning before nine o’clock, I returned to the 
Emperor at the abbey of Elchingen, giving him an 
account of this negotiation, whose details appeared to 
please him. His glance denoted the liveliest satisfac- 
tion when misinformed by me as to the presence of the 
Archduke in Ulm. After twenty minutes’ conversa- 
tion, seeing that I was worn out with so many days 
and nights of fighting and fatigue, he gave me per- 
mission to take off my clothes and retire to rest. But 
before I was half undressed, I was ordered back to 
him in hot haste, and as I kept him waiting a couple 
of minutes, he sent Marshal Berthier in person to seek 
me in my cell where I was wearily struggling into 
my clothes again. This major brought me at the same 
time the new propositions written on half margin, 
and the order to go back at once and make the mar- 
shal accept them. 

The Emperor granted eight days, to date from Octo- 
ber 15th, the first day of the blockade, which really 
reduced it to the six days which I could have conceded 
but had not chosen to do. However, in case of a 
persistent refusal, I was authorized to date these eight 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 199 


days from October 16th, and the Emperor would still 
be the gainer of a day by this concession. He was 
anxious to enter Ulm quickly so as to increase the 
glory of his victory by its rapidity, to be able to turn 
back and throw himself upon Vienna before that capital 
had recovered from its consternation, so as not to leave 
the Russian army time to take measures for its defence; 
and also because our own provisions were beginning 
to run short. 

Marshal Berthier caused me to be informed that he 
would approach the gate of Ulm, and that when the 
conditions were settled, I was to procure his admission. 

I returned to Ulm towards noon. This time I found 
Mack a few paces from the gate of the town on the 
ground-floor of a small, dirty, and miserable pot-house. 
I handed to him the ultimatum of the Emperor, and 
he immediately went up to the first story to discuss 
it with some generals, amongst whom were MM. 
de Lichtenstein, Klenau and Giulai. Twenty minutes 
later he came down again alone, once more to argue 
with me upon the date of the respite which had been 
granted to him. His obstinate tenacity made me 
relinquish all hope of overcoming it, so that I judged 
it right to concede the only day which I was author- 
ized to yield. A misunderstanding, due no doubt to 
the difference of the two calendars which we were 
each using, led him to imagine that, dating from 
25th Vendémiaire (October 17th) he was thus obtain- 
ing the eight days for which he held out. Then in 
a singular transport of joy he exclaimed: “M. de 
“Séegur, my dear M. de Ségur, I was not mistaken in 
“relying on the generosity of the Emperor.... tell 
“Marshal Berthier that I thoroughly respect him.... tell 


200 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“the Emperor that I have only a few slight remarks 
“to make.... that I will sign anything you bring me.... 
“but also tell His Majesty that Marshal Ney has used 
“me with great severity.... that that is not the way to 
“treat.... Be sure to tell the Emperor that I relied 
“on his generosity...” Then he added in an effusion of 
increasing delight: “M. de Segur, I value youresteem.... 
“T think a great deal of the opinion that you may 
“form of me. And I will show you the paper that I 
“had already signed, bearing my unalterable resolution.” 
Thus saying, he unfolded a sheet of paper upon which 
I read these words: “Eight days or death! szgned 
“MACK.” 

I was transfixed with astonishment when I noted 
the expression of happiness which irradiated his coun- 
tenance. I was astonished and almost taken aback by 
this puerile joy over such a futile concession. In so 
entire a shipwreck of his hopes, what a miserable branch 
was this for the unhappy general-in-chief to hang his 
lost honour upon, in the belief that it might also be 
strong enough to bear that of his army, and the safety 
of Austria. He took my hands and pressed them in 
his own, allowing me to leave Ulm with unbandaged 
eyes, and even permitting the introduction of Marshal 
Berthier into the place without any formality; he was, 
in short, happy at last!.... 

There ensued, however, a lively discussion with 
General Berthier still concerning these dates. I had 
explained the misunderstanding, and the matter was 
laid before the Emperor. Marshal Mack had assured 
me on my night visit that ten days’ provisions were 
left, but as a matter of fact, so little remained, as 
indeed I had remarked to His Majesty, that he had 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 201 


asked permission in my presence for some to be sent 
in that very day. This consideration alone would 
leave the Emperor free to take back the twenty-four 
hours which he would give up. He therefore yielded 
as to the date; and that very night, October 17th, 
this capitulation, whose negotiation he had entrusted 
to me, approved by him, was signed by Marshals 
Berthier and Mack. 

Mack finding himself turned and driven back upon 
Ulm, thought that by throwing himself into it, he 
would attract and keep the Emperor before the ram- 
parts of the town which would thus favour the escape 
of his other corps in different directions. He believed 
that he had sacrificed himself and this was what kept 
up his courage. At the time of my negotiations with 
him, he seemed to think that our whole army was 
motionless and, as it were, stationary before Ulm. 
He arranged the furtive evasion of the Archduke 
who went to join Verneck and Hohenzollern. Another 
division that had remained at Meningen was also to 
attempt to escape, and yet another under Jellachich 
took flight towards the mountains of the Tyrol. But 
it was hoped that all would be taken prisoners. 

It is known now (night of 17th to 18th October), by 
a report of Prince Murat and the capture of 3 to 
4,000 men that the body of 20,000 men encountered 
by Dupont towards Albeck on October 14th was on 
that very day, and still more on the 15th, cut off 
from Ulm and thrown back upon Heidenheim, that 
the Archduke Ferdinand who, it was believed, had 
only left on the previous day (the 16th), about an hour 
after midnight on the very night I had been sent 
there, had rejoined this detached corps which had 


202 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


been attacked by Prince Murat, and that he was 
flying with the remains of it to Nordlingen. To-day, 
(October 18th) the Emperor’s attention which was now 
easy on the score of Ulm whose capitulation was 
signed the previous night, and whose gate designated 
“Stuttgart” had been given up to us, was eagerly 
concentrated on the Archduke. He sent order upon 
order to his foot dragoons, to Marshal Lannes, 
Oudinot, Nansouty, even to the cavalry of his guard. 
Some were to defend our reserve parks which were 
left without protection on the passage of the Arch- 
duke’s flight; the others in divers directions, were 
sent forth to help Murat to seize the Austrian prince, 
and at all hazards, to possess themselves of his person; 
others were to clear our line of operations whence 
the Emperor was expecting the stores which we were 
in need of, and which the overflow of the Danube 
prevented us from transporting from the right bank. 
In the anxiety of his suspense he lets nothing escape 
him. He has just given me the order to question in 
the following sequence the couriers who arrive from 
Stuttgart by way of Nordlingen, and to write him their 
answers. “What have they learnt? What have they 
“seen? What enemies have they had to avoid? How 
“numerous were they ? Who were the generals? How 
“many guns? In what direction were their columns 
“marching ?” 

This morning (October t1oth), the Emperor having 
learnt through Prince Murat that the 20,000 men cut 
off from Ulm, had been all taken, together with their 
guns and the whole of their baggage, he sent word 
to Mack to come and see him at Elchingen. The un- 
happy general reached it about one o’clock and then 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 203 


all his last delusions were destroyed. His Majesty, in 
order to persuade him no longer to keep him uselessly 
waiting before Ulm, forced him to contemplate the 
full horror of his position and that of Austria. He 
informed him of our success on all points; that Ver- 
neck’s corps with all his artillery and ten generals had 
capitulated; that no doubt the Archduke himself had 
been taken, and that nothing more had been heard 
about the Russians. The unfortunate general was 
overwhelmed by all these blows; his strength failed 
him and we saw him turn pale; in fact he would have 
fallen down if he had not leant up against the wall 
for support. Then only, breaking down under the 
weight of all his misfortunes, did he own his distress: 
that he had no more stores in Ulm; that instead 
of 15,000 men, there were 24,000 combatants and 
3,000 wounded, and that the confusion was such that 
every moment more were discovered; that he was fully 
aware that no hope remained, and that he consented 
to surrender Ulm and his army from the following day, 
(October zoth) at three o’clock in the afternoon. 

He, however, exacted a declaration, signed by 
Marshal Berthier, as to the position of the Russians, 
and that Marshal Ney and his corps should remain 
before Ulm till the 25th. This last demand was pue- 
rile to a degree, because in any case it would be 
necessary to leave forces there to guard the captured 
army and to escort it into France. 

On leaving the Emperor and perceiving me he ex- 
claimed: “That it was cruel to be dishonoured in the 
“mind of so many brave officers! and yet in his pocket 
“there was his own opinion written and signed to the 
“effect that he had refused to allow his army to be 


204 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“broken up, but that he was not in command of it, 
“for the Archduke was there.” 

It is possible that there was a disinclination to obey 
Mack, and it is certain that after my last con- 
ference with him in Ulm, when the capitulation had 
evidently been agreed upon, the attitude ot several of 
the Austrian generals around him quite revolted me: 
I could easily see that their envious jealousy, grati- 
fied by the ruin of the chief who had been imposed 
upon them, was paramount to all teelings of propriety, 
and made them for the time quite oblivious of patriot- 
ism. It is true that several others amongst whom 
were MM. de Lichtenstein and Klénau, made no 
attempt to hide their bitter mortification. 

To-night (October 19th) it is known that Jellachich’s 
six thousand men who had evaded Marshal Soult 
beyond Biberach, were in flight towards I eldkirch, 
while on the opposite side, the Archduke was fleeing 
towards Bohemia with a few squadrons. It thus fol- 
lowed that after several partial combats beginning at 
Donawerth on October 6th, in the space of fourteen 
days and without a single battle, this army which 
numbered about 48,o00 men inclusive of the reinforce- 
ment sent by the Archduke John, and not including 
the 18,000 men who had escaped with Kienmayer, 
Jellachich, and Prince Ferdinand in three separate 
directions, was either decimated or taken prisoner. 

To-day (October 20th), 33,000 Austrians and eighteen 
generals with forty flags and sixty mounted guns have 
surrendered as prisoners of war. ‘This captive army 
defiled past the Emperor at the foot of a rock between 
Ney’s and Marmont’s corps ranged in order of battle to 
right and left with loaded arms. As they passed by, 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 205 


the prisoners, seized with admiration, arrested their 
march past to contemplate their conquerors, and many 
cried out: “Long lve the Emperor!” With very 
different emotions, some with evident mortification, and 
others eagerly without waiting for the order, laid down 
their arms. The infantry threw down their muskets 
on either side of the roadway, and the cavalry, dis- 
mounting, gave up their horses to our cavalry, and 
the artillery their guns, of which our artillery took 
possession. The officers, sent home on parole, alone 
retained their arms. 

An outburst of enthusiasm which was with difficulty 
repressed, broke out in our ranks at the sight of this 
triumph. During the long defile, which in succession 
brought back to Ulm this mass of prisoners, the 
Emperor kept the Austrian officers by his side. His 
manners and his words were gentle, kind, and even 
affectionate. He endeavoured to console them for 
their reverses, saying:—“ That war had its chances, 
“that being frequently conquerors, they ought to console 
“themselves for being sometimes conquered; that this 
“war in which they had been engaged by their master 
“was unjust and motiveless; frankly, he did not know 
“himself what they were fighting for, nor what was 
“expected from him.” 

There was a moment when one of these generals, 
noticing that Napoleon’s uniform was much splashed, 
remarked how fatiguing the campaign must have been 
for him during such very wet weather. 

“Your master,” he answered with a smile, wanted 
“to remind me that I was a soldier; I hope he will 
“own that the Imperial purple has not caused me to 
“forget my first trade.” 


206 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


In the course of the conversation some threatening 
words, it is said, were let fall concerning the Emperor 
of Austria. Mack was present during the whole painful 
scene; and one of us who did not know him by sight, 
and was anxious to contemplate the unfortunate general, 
asked. him to point him out “You see before you 
the miserable Mack!” was the answer of the field- 
marshal. 

Miserable indeed, unfortunate man! What a sad 
example, what a lamentable downfall, what a cruelly 
different fame to that which he had sought! 

(Lind of the copy of my notes.) 


The Emperor who had returned for the sixth and 
last time to Elchingen, after this triumph, lost no time 
in dividing its trophies between his allies and France. 
Paris received those of Vertingen: the Senate, the 
flags taken at Ulm; France, 60,000 prisoners, “ des- 
“tined,” he said “to take the place of our soldiers in 
“field labour.” But all did not achieve this destiny, a 
good number of them having escaped before reaching 
our frontiers. The Russian recruiters were blamed 
for this, but it was partly owing to the carelessness 
of our own soldiers who did not like acting as escort 
to them. Their careless negligence when not fighting, 
and their gentleness after victory is, besides, well-known. 

During the same night of October 20 to 21, a pro-- 
clamation of Napoleon to his army, dated from the 
abbey of Elchingen now for ever famous, testified his 
gratitude to his soldiers. He showed them their glory in 
the results of the victory which they owed to him. 
Swabia and Bavaria conquered in a fortnight, with all 
the parks and magazines of the enemy, 200 cannon, 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 207 


90 flags, 72,000 men killed or taken! He went on 
to laud their devotion and praise, their intre- 
pidity, taking credit to himself for having spared 
bloodshed by conquering by manceuvres without a 
battle, and winding up with these words: * My soldiers 
are my children.” 

He added deeds to words, and decree upon decree 
proved the exteni of his gratitude. By one of these 
they were to benefit by all the taxes levied on the 
enemy, and by the proceeds of the sale of the maga- 
zines that had fallen into our hands. The most mag- 
nificent of all, selecting the preceding fortnight from 
the rest of the year, declared that this month of Octo- 
ber alone should be reckoned to them as a campaign 
in their record of service. 

In the midst of these grateful acts of recognition 
and his usual work, he had not neglected what had 
remained to be done. Our army of Ulm with the 
exception of Ney, was already on the march to rejoin 
that of Bavaria. And as in his proclamation, when 
announcing the arrival of the Russian army to his 
soldiery, he had told them proudly: “That, as for 
“himself, there was no general there with whom he 
“could find any glory to be obtained, but as far 
“as they were concerned, they would be able to prove 
“for a second time that they were the first or the second 
“infantry in the world,” it was not difficult to see that 
he had been so lavish of thanks with a view to incite 
them to further deeds; or at any rate, that there was 
as much thought of the future as remembrance of the 
past in this remarkable outpouring of gratitude. 

Thus ended, before Ulm and in Elchingen, the first 
part of this campaign. 


CHAPTER XVII. 
VIENNA. 


P to that time it was our adversaries who had 
U changed, but not our luck. It was not long, how- 
ever, before we recognised that we were going to 
have to do with very different men. These were 40,000 
Russians under Kutusow and his lieutenants, Bagra- 
tion and Miloradowitch, names which have been rendered 
famous by our misfortunes in 1812. They are a self- 
contained nation, selfish through isolation, ignorance 
and superstition; keenly sensitive as to their still 
superficial civilization, strongly constituted as to their 
component parts of the pride of masters and the de- 
votion of slaves. Their chiefs possess the instinct of 
war, and are eager, prompt, and resolute, and the blind, 
obstinate tenacity of the soldier is never wanting in 
their generals. 

Our advance-guards on the 31st, under Kellerman 
on the right, Murat and Davout in the centre, and 
Lannes on the left, carried away by eagerness to 
conquer, overtook and harassed the enemy; these 
marshals and generals had left the Emperor behind, 
and were in a state of anger and indignation at any 
show of resistance from the enemy, as if it were an 
act of insubordination or revolt. Nothing stopped them, 


208 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 209 


neither abrupt defiles, broken bridges, pathless roads, 
affluents of the Danube, or fatiguing marches of ten 
or fifteen leagues. Napoleon’s expectations had been 
so far exceeded that on November 5th, our advance 
euards had taken from the Austro-Russians 6,000 
killed and wounded, also the Traun and Upper Austria 
from Enns to Steyer, and the Enns itself. 

At Steyer, which was the end of Moreau’s glory, 
the bridge having been burnt, Davout’s soldiers 
passed the Enns one by one on a beam, under a hail 
of bullets and grape shot. They had reformed 
on the other bank, under the Austrian retrenchments, 
and then springing forwards, had dislodged the enemy 
by taking more prisoners than they numbered assailants. 
On the eve of this action, the Emperor had arrived at 
Lintz from Lembach and remained there five days. 
This sojourn proved fertile in excitement and movement. 
To begin with, about a quarter of a league from the 
gate of this town, a terrible incident, of a rare char- 
acter in our army, where discipline is rendered easier 
through the intelligent emulation, and the fraternity of 
arms and origin of the soldier and the officer, had 
struck him with horror, which found its manifestation 
in impetuous speech. He was galloping past the left 
flank of a column of light artillery, when twenty paces 
before him, he noticed an artilleryman throw back 
his head with a threatening air, and at the same moment 
saw his captain by a back-handed blow of the sabre 
sever it almost completely, so that it inclined towards 
the shoulder of the unfortunate man who fell to the 
ground in a torrent of blood. Napoleon turned pale 
at this horrible sight and making his horse bound 


forwards, exclaimed: “What have you done, Captain?” 
16 


ZO MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“My duty!” answered the officer abruptly; “and 
“until I am killed by one of my soldiers,” he added in 
a loud tone as he looked straight at them, “I would 
“kill anyone of them who dared to fail in respect to 
“their captain.” The Emperor, struck by his energy, 
was speechless for the moment, but controlling his 
emotion, he resumed in a firm voice: “If this be the 
“case, you have done well, you are a good officer and 
“understand your duty. This is how I wish to be 
“served.” He than continued his course in the midst of 
a mournful silence inspired by his words, and entered 
Lintz at a walking pace with a troubled expression of 
countenance. 

Other emotions and preoccupations were, however, 
awaiting him in the town. On the one hand the Elec- 
tor of Bavaria had hastened to give vent to his assur- 
ances of earnest gratitude; the deputies of the Senate 
had also come to express the admiration of France; 
Giulai and Lichtenstein were the bearers of an insidious 
offer of an armistice; whilst Duroc had arrived bring- 
ing back from Berlin nothing beyond a hope, which 
was that Frederic would await the issue of arms to 
decide whether he should remain neutral or join our 
enemies. 

As for the armistice which the Emperor of Austria, 
terrified at our approach, and already disgusted with 
Russian exaction and arrogance, had sent to demand, 
Napoleon answered that peace was only possible on 
conditions that he would dictate, which he did by 
letter, but that as for a suspension of arms, the request 
seemed untimely, as he could nowhere perceive any 
Austrian army with which he, at the head of 200,000 
men, could desire to arrange an armistice. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. PHILA 


That is at any rate what we of Napoleon’s entourage 
learnt concerning this conference. Whilst it was taking 
place Giulai’s aide-de-camp complained to us with ex- 
treme bitterness of the excesses of the Russians. At 
the same time, M. de Thiard, who was one of us, had 
been drawn into a secret interview by the Prince de 
Lichtenstein. Whether this personage was entrusted 
with a mission, or whether of his own accord he 
favoured the customs of his Court by trying to bring 
matrimonial alliances to the aid of the resources of 
war, his insinuations were of such a nature, that on 
leaving him, Thiard thought it his duty immediately 
to seek out the Emperor, saying that: “ Lichtenstein 
“had just been questioning him as to the rumour that 
“the Prince Eugéne had asked a princess of Bavaria 
“in marriage,” and that on his reply the Austrian prince 
had added: “Why should you stop there? Vienna has 
“other marriageable princesses, and could not peace be 
“sealed by another marriage?” Upon which Napoleon 
exclaimed impulsively: “An Austrian princess! Ah! 
“no, never—France would be revolted at such an idea, 
“it would recall Marie Antoinette.” And surprised by 
a communication of this importance made through 
such a channel, he asked Thiard what had been the 
cause of this outpouring of Lichtenstein, and why he 
had selected him for such a confidence? 

Thiard was well acquainted with Austria and the 
Austrians, in whose ranks he had served; he could 
speak their language and was aware that he was 
useful to Napoleon. He, therefore, answered without 
confusion or even any reticence: “ That having belonged 
“to Condeé’s corps, he had often fought under the eyes 
“of Lichtenstein, and that speaking both languages, he 


2 e2 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“had frequently served as an intermediary between 
“the Austrians and the Duc d’Enghien. ” 

At this name which few others would have dared to 
pronounce, whatever may have been the present 
preoccupations of the Emperor, the subject of conver- 
sation completely changed and bore entirely upon the past. 
During nearly an hour, Napoleon, apparently oblivious 
of everything else, did not cease to question Thiard 
upon the character, the mind, the martial talent of 
the unfortunate prince; and all this with a curious air 
of calm and natural interest, not at all as if he had 
been speaking of his victim to one who had long served 
as an aide-de-camp by his side, and whose friend he had 
been. Thiard’s replies were uttered with such sincerity, 
and were so eulogistic that Napoleon exclaimed: “He 
was really a man then, that prince!” And with the same 
calm and kindly manner, he dismissed his interlocutor. 

Thiard told me besides, that very day, that this was 
the second time he had held converse with the Emperor 
on this sad subject. Their first conversation was at 
the time of the murder. It was Thiard himself who 
had enlightened the First Consul as to his mistake about 
the name of Dumouriez; and he told me that then, as at 
Lintz, he had remarked the same calm impassiveness 
in the attitude, the expression, and the voice of Napoleon. 

Astonished as we were at this singular inflexibility, 
above all when we recalled so many proofs of kindness, 
of generosity, even of sensibility, on his part, we asked 
ourselves if this impassibility were the result of a 
misguided conscience or of political calculation. Was it 
a reflex effect of the habits of his natal isle? Did he 
believe that he had the right to avenge one crime by 
another crime? Or rather, under this apparent calm, 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 213 


was he persevering in his determination to prevent 
any further plots, and did he look upon the cruel act 
of Vincennes as a just punishment of former outrages, 
and a useful warning against future ones? 

I find here in my notes that Napoleon during his 
sojourn at Lintz was seriously taken up with the care 
of restoring order to his army. It is very true that 
the rapid marches and counter-marches of the campaign 
of Ulm, and the breakdown of the roads through the 
rains, which kept back the store and ammunition 
waggons, rendered regular distributions impossible. It 
is a certain fact that had not our soldiers snatched 
from the peasantry their victuals and their cattle to 
subsist upon, had they been obliged to wait till provisions 
arrived by the waggons which were lagging far in the 
rear of their columns, the principal aim of the enter- 
prise would have failed. Necessity was an excuse 
then; but the evil which had begun in Franconia, 
even amongst the Prussians, and in Suabia, had con- 
tinued in Bavaria; it was being renewed on the Inn, 
and this marauding was destructive of discipline. 

This came under the Emperor’s observation near 
Lembach where he had rejoined the corps of Marshal 
Soult. There, in front of the ranks, he had inquired 
in a loud voice as to the regularity of the distribu- 
tions; and whether the marshal had thought that the 
question was put merely as a matter of form, or that 
he wanted to appear satisfied so as to give satisfac- 
tion, (a piece of braggadocio which is sometimes-useful 
before troops and is always agreeable to the chief) 
he had answered that the soldiers wanted for nothing; 
but twenty voices had been immediately rudely uplifted 
from the ranks to contradict him. 


214 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


The same kind of thing was repeated the next 
day in a still more positive fashion. Napoleon was 
issuing from his quarters on horseback when he 
met Macon, whom he was always glad to see since 
Marengo, and whom he had attached to his person. 
This general was in command of the Imperial quarters 
and had been so moved by a scene of pillage which 
he had not been able to prevent, that he had just 
given his own purse to the unfortunate countryman 
who had been its victim. Macon was an old soldier 
of the army of Italy, whose entrance into Court circles 
had not altered his republican frankness. ‘ Well, 
“Macon,” gaily cried out the Emperor, as he saw him, 
“what have you got to tell me to-day?”—“ Faith, 
“sire,” answered he, “I can tell you that you are followed 
“by a crowd of plunderers who will dishonour your 
“army and yourself if you do not promptly put things 
“on a proper footing.” Macon would have gone on, 
if Napoleon had not cut short this ebullition by turning 
his head aside and making his horse go faster. 

The reproach was only too well deserved, but it had 
caused displeasure by being made too publicly. The 
subject, however, had been again renewed by reports 
which were made with a little more discretion, notably 
by one of Napoleon’s house stewards, and the Emperor 
had answered: “ That this dirty train of cripples and 
“camp-followers and plunderers was an inevitable evil, 
“a necessary result of forced and sudden marches, by 
“means of which the enemy, hindered and disconcerted 
“at all points, was half vanquished before fighting: and 
“that thus heads were saved by legs!” 

Without owning to it, there is no doubt that he 
temporarily countenanced these irregularities, because 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 205 


they to a certaim extent. made up to the soldier for 
his fatigues: he was in the habit of thus utilizing all 
springs of action. However, when it was represented 
to him at Lintz that this contagious evil had degenerated 
into the most infamous plunder, that it was becoming 
intolerable, and that our ranks were thinned, he sud- 
denly stopped it in characteristic fashion. The most 
stringent orders were published on November 7th. 
The wretched creatures were tracked, gathered together 
and driven forwards. In Braunau alone, a fortress 
that had to be traversed, over 10,000 of them, it is 
said, were assembled, and the word having been 
passed round on their return to their companies, they 
had to undergo the indignity of a visitation, when 
each of them, deprived of his spoil, was given over 
to the rough and ready floggings of his comrades. 

Murat, however, had continued his way, and had 
met with no serious obstacle until November 5th at 
Amstetten, where a skirmish had taken place, in which 
our cavalry, imprudently sent on into a wood, had 
been repulsed with a loss of 300 killed or taken prison- 
ers. This was a new experience for Murat, who recog- 
nised that he had no longer to do with the Austrians 
but with very different kind of men. Oudinot hastened 
to the spot with his grenadiers, and from that moment 
commenced the determined struggle between Russian 
honour against French honour, or rather, so far as the 
soldiers were concerned, the shock of intelligent and 
civilized experience against primitive and barbarous 
courage. 

In this first encounter 2,000 Russians were killed 
or taken; not one of them surrendered; wounded, 
disarmed, and biting the dust, they not only de- 


216 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


fended themselves but even continued to attack us. After 
the fighting was over, in order to carry away a few hun- 
dreds of them, we were obliged to prick them up with 
our bayonets, like a badly broken-in flock of sheep, or 
to knock them down with the butt ends of our mus- 
kets. 

The obstinacy of this resistance confirmed Napoleon’s 
hopes of a battle at Saint-Pcelten. On receipt of this 
news and as soon as he had learnt the occupation of 
Moelkt, he left Lintz on November oth for this enor- 
mous abbey; a magnificent residence that could vie 
with the most sumptuous palaces, whose cellars were 
able to supply all our columns with wine without 
being exhausted; here our Imperial headquarters took 
the place of those of the Austrian Emperor, who, it 
was said, had withdrawn to Vienna. 

At the same time, Napoleon learnt that his hope of 
a decisive action at Saint-Pcelten so ably planned by 
him, was dashed to the ground; that Kutusow had 
just slipped away by the right bank of the Danube to- 
wards the left bank, over the bridge of Krems, which 
he had destroyed; that the first Russian army had 
thus escaped him, and was on its way to join the 
second which would delay the war, lead it further on, 
and still further towards the east, thus probably giving 
time to Prince Charles to join it, and allow Frederic 
to rally his forces, to redouble his threats, and to put 
them into execution. 

To this disappointment was added a grave anxiety 
which increased in the evening of November 11th with 
the smothered distant echo of heavy firing, which was 
not even interrupted by night. What unforeseen 
danger could suddenly have attacked Mortier? For it 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 27 


was doubtless he, who going forwards alone with an 
advance guard of 5,000 men, had unexpectedly come 
across Kutusow with 40,000 men; it was impossible to do 
otherwise than believe in the destruction of this marshal 
and his unhappy division. What an effect would be 
produced on <Austria’s discouragement and Frederic’s 
indecision by the news of the defeat of a French 
corps with one of our marshals, who might at this 
very moment be killed or fallen alive into the hands 
of the Russians! 

One could only offer up prayers and await the 
decision of fate. The wide and deep Danube, which 
was still free at this height, separated us from the 
marshal. This stream had just delivered over to the 
Russians one of Mortier’s generals, who, in despair, 
was making his escape in a barque. All announced 
a catastrophe: the Emperor no longer doubted it. In 
his anxiety, as he drew nearer to the sound of the 
combat, he had advanced from Moelkt to Saint-Pecelten, 
where the fear of a reverse usurped the place of his 
former hope of victory. Here his agitation increasing 
with the noise of the firing, he despatched everybody 
for news; officers, aides-de-camp, and everyone who 
happened to be near him. With his mind entirely 
set on Mortier’s peril, he suspended the progress of 
the invasion; behind him at Moelkt, that of Bernadotte 
and the flotilla; in front of him that of Murat whom 
he rebuked “for his precipitation in going onwards 
“like a child up to the very gates of Vienna,” and he 
even ordered Marshal Soult who was following this 
prince, to retrace his steps. Finally about two o’clock 
in the afternoon of the next day, (November 12th) 
the return of Thiard and of Lemarois had just allayed 


218 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


his anxiety, when an aide-de-camp of Mortier arrived. 

The night before, towards morning, he said, 
Marshal Mortier and General Gazan had driven the 
enemy on from Diernstein till within sight of Krems 
and had carried away 1,500 of his men; they were 
continuing their way when by a sudden repulse, they 
perceived that they had encountered the whole of the 
Russian army. It was then necessary to retreat, one 
against four, for the space of two leagues which they 
did fighting, in good order, in the hope of finding a 
shelter in Diernstein. Mortier, hotly pressed, had just 
caught sight of the walls of the town, rejoicing, when 
suddenly he saw another Russian army issue from it 
against him and found himself between two fires. His 
soldiers immediately dispersed through a defile, formed 
on the right by the Bohemian mountains and on the 
left by the Danube. There they were, pressed closely 
one upon the other; 20,000 Russians pushing them 
back, and 15,000 other Russians driving them 
forwards. The marshal without showing any surprise, 
faced them on both sides; endeavouring on the one 
hand to keep Kutusow in check, and on the other 
to open up a passage to Diernstein; but the two 
corps of the enemy who had caught sight of each 
other, through and beyond us, rushed onwards with 
shouts of joy, and drawing nearer enclosed and 
crushed our feeble troop closer and closer between 
their double masses. 

Finally, after four hours of desperate resistance, our 
cavalry gave way, our firing slackened, our bayonets 
through constant use were bent and blunted; the 
gathering night instead of separating the combatants 
augmented the confusion which became terrible; several 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 219 


times Mortier himself, whose high stature made him 
conspicuous above all others, and a mark to be aimed 
at even in the darkness, was forced to kick aside or 
strike down with his sabre some of the most desperate. 
At last all hope was given up, and _ everyone 
pressed round him, urging him to take advantage of 
the night and escape on board a vessel, so that they 
might snatch from Russian pride the trophy of a 
French marshal taken prisoner, but he on the contrary 
answered: “ That he would share the fate of the brave 
“men around him, whatever that might be; that Dupont 
“and his division must be close at hand, and that they 
“must make one last supreme effort.” Then, rallying 
and closing up the remaining troops, he pointed the 
only two guns that were left to him, one towards 
Krems against Kutusow; the other, directed by Fabvier, 
he turned against Diernstein, placing it at the head of 
the column; and as all the drums were broken, he 
caused the charge to be sounded on iron cans. 

At this moment the Austrian Colonel Schmidt who 
was leading the Russian corps which was master of 
Diernstein, dashed forward to strike a last blow which 
should complete the destruction of our column. But 
Fabvier had heard him; hidden in the darkness he let 
him come near, when suddenly discharging his piece 
at short distance on the head of this attacking party, 
he overthrew it, killing its chief, and in this bloody 
opening, Mortier and Gazan precipitated themselves, 
overthrowing everything before them. Diernstein was 
re-taken by this impetuous dash, Schmidt’s Russians 
fell back into the valley of Krems by which way they 
had secretly arrived, and took flight, whilst the delighted 
Mortier was hardly able to believe in his own success. 


220 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


But from the other side of Diernstein came a 
sound of arms and numerous footsteps; and with de- 
spair in their hearts they were preparing for a fresh 
encounter, when, “ /vance/” was the answer to our 
cry of “ Quz vive?” It was Dupont and his division 
coming to the help of the marshal. Then joyous trans- 
ports and cries of “Long live our saviours /” suc- 
ceeded to their fears. 

Thus Diernstein, the famous prison of the English 
king Richard Coeur de Lion, became doubly celebrated 
by French hearts, which were as worthy of this surname 
and more fortunate than its owner. 

On the return of daylight the roll-call was read: 
out of 5,000, 3,000 had perished, but by an inex- 
plicable chance our 1,500 Russian prisoners were still 
to be found in Diernstein; so that the loss of the enemy, 
greater than our own, was estimated at 4,o00 men. 

We have seen that Murat had been strongly repri- 
manded for allowing his eagerness to carry him on 
to Vienna, drawing with him the corps of Marshals 
Lannes and Soult. The event proved, however, that 
this time he was not at fault; it may even be that as 
the urgency of the end in view increased, as we shall 
see, the counter-orders of the Emperor to these three 
corps caused them to lose twenty-four hours by which 
the Russians profited. 

In effect his anticipation of crushing on the right 
bank the first Russian corps in advance of Vienna 
being frustrated, and Vienna and this bank having been 
abandoned, he cherished a fresh hope as soon as he 
knew Mortier was saved; it was that by hastening to 
Vienna by the right bank to get ahead of the enemy 
who was escaping from him by the left bank, he would 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. Zea 


surprise their passage of the Danube at this point, 
whence, precipitating himself in force on the other bank, 
he would interpose himself between Kutusow and 
Buxwoden, cutting off from the first Russian army 
its retreat upon the second, and taking it prisoner in 
Bohemia, as he had taken Mack in Suabia. 

It is true that two very unlikely things were neces- 
sary for such a hope to be realized: firstly, that Vienna, 
strong enough to delay us for forty-eight hours, 
without danger for herself, should open her gates to 
us; then that she should give up to us intact her 
bridges across the Danube. This is, however, what 
did happen. Either from discouragement on the part 
of the Emperor of Austria, or a hatred for the allies, 
loudly proclaimed by his officers against the Rus- 
sians, Vienna made no resistance; and as for her 
bridges, a stratagem of war delivered them into our 
hands. 

Whilst Giulai, who had returned as the bearer of 
a flag of truce, had been detained on the 12th at 
Saint-Pcelten, Lannes and Murat and Sebastiani at their 
head, received orders, the one to enter Vienna, the 
others to spread along the bank of the Danube and 
take possession of the bridges of that town. On 
November 13th, Vienna having surrendered without 
striking a blow, they hastened to this passage, broke 
through the barrier, and at once entered into the 
winding defile formed by the little bridges. These 
were intersected by wooded islands which concealed 
our march from the artillery and the Austrian general 
posted on the last and largest bridge of the stream. 
Lannes and Murat had dismounted, and followed by 
their grenadiers, shouldering arms, they drove before 


Q22z MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


them a squadron of the enemy, waving their hand- | 
kerchiefs in the air to announce an armistice, and 
parleying with the officer in command. 

This officer in his surprise drew back, not quite 
knowing what he ought to do, and his indecision 
spread to those in his rear. Thus our chiefs made their 
way up to the) large “bridge at the most critical 
moment; this last passage was full of inflammable 
material, with a battery in readiness to annihilate our 
column. But this sight instead of checking our marshals 
caused them to hurry on and when, unmasked by the 
enemy’s retreating squadron, they saw the Austrian 
artillery officer seize hold of the match, they sprang 
forward. Dodde, then one of our engineer colonels, 
was the first to seize the officer’s torch. A mélée 
ensued and still parleying, whilst our grenadiers cleared 
the bridge, and Bertrand presented himself before the 
Prince of Auersberg, Lannes, Murat and Sebastiani 
had reached the other bank and taken possession of it. 

They were masters of the situation before the unfor- 
tunate prince, taken aback by this sudden stroke, had 
understood what was going on. ‘The two marshals, 
satisfied with so important a conquest which must 
decide the fate of the Russians, then desisted from 
mystifying this general, allowing him to escape, to be 
lost sight of in the open, and to carry his confusion 
to his Emperor. Napoleon learnt the good news from 
Bertrand on this very day, November 13th, at Bruc- 
kersdorf, ana beside himself with delight, he pushed 
on almost alone to Schoenbrunn. I had just preceded 
him there with a battalion, and was arranging the 
quarters when he sent for me. “Leave at once for 
Gratz,” he said, “and hand this dispatch to Marmont. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 223 


“You will find Gudin at Neustadt; you will tell him 
“to push his posts on to the Spitalberg but not beyond. 
“Inform yourself as to the resources to be found in 
“Neustadt, and write to me from that town. You 
“should come across the enemy between Neukirch and 
“Brugge, go through them, and if you choose, invent 
“some subterfuge; say that you are bearing news of an 
“armistice.... Get out of it as well as you can; but 
“above all, do not allow the instructions which I entrust 
“to you to be taken.” He was beginning to discuss 
the means I should employ, when I interrupted him by 
saying that I would get through some way or another, 
and that in any case I answered for his dispatches. 

I must own that I did this at haphazard, in my 
wish to appear always ready and willing, for this 
doubtful and distant mission came at a very inoppor- 
tune moment. I was so worn out by fatigue that a 
night or two previously while passing through a can- 
tonment, I had fallen down insensible. My surprise 
may be imagined when on returning to my senses I 
found myself seated at the centre of a large, well- 
served and well-lighted table, in a warm room, in 
the midst of the officers of the mounted grenadiers of our 
guard. This happened quite by chance: fortunately 
for me, one of them had recognised me when he struck 
his foot against me in the dark, and extricating me 
from the midst of the guns and artillery waggons 
which would have gone over me, he carried me in 
his arms to this place of honour, where the cares 
which were lavished upon me soon brought me to 
myself. 

There was nothing surprising in this collapse. Since 
we had left Munich I had been marching by day and 


224 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


night, especially the latter, cursing many times the 
necessity which obliged me to go past the fires of our 
infantry, who were lying on the snow, without being 
able to stop, envying as I did what appeared to me 
their comfort. Thus I would go on against time, with 
pressing instructions of all kinds, as long as my horses 
could carry me, then using those belonging to the 
peasants whom I met. I remember amongst other 
adventures that during one of these trying nights, as 
I was endeavouring to reach Moelkt before daylight, 
I encountered a river which I had to ford, and lost 
my guide and my horses, which were carried away by 
the current. Luckier than my poor beast which drifted 
away to the Danube, I succeeded in touching ground, 
continuing my way on foot, and only thankful that I 
had been able to arrive at the abbey at the appointed 
time. 

As for my mission to Gratz, I spent a day and night 
executing it, without accident, but with greater fatigue 
than ever, being disappointed on my return to find 
that the Emperor had left Vienna. I only rejoined 
him at Brunn, where I learnt that Marmont was con- 
gratulating himself, that by his presence in Styria and 
at the defiles of Carinthia, he had turned back upon 
Hungary the retreat of the Archduke Charles. 

At that time the Emperor was, not without reason, 
dissatisfied with the events which had happened since my 
departure from Schcenbrunn. During the night of the 
13th to the 14th, which was that of my departure from 
this residence, he himself had passed through Vienna, 
unknown to the inhabitants, and had crossed the bridges 
to rejoice over his conquest, to convey his satisfaction to 
Lannes and Murat, and above all, to take advantage of it! 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 225 


He was in haste to make an end of the Russians, all 
the more because he had just learnt from Giulai that 
Frederic had joined the coalition. He had immediately 
pushed on Lannes, with the divisions of Suchet and 
Oudinot, Murat’s cavalry, and the corps of Marshal 
Soult, towards Znaim on the road to Bavaria, to cut 
off all retreat from Kutusow who was coming from 
Krems. 

The combat of Diernstein against Mortier, the pre- 
sence of Bernadotte who had been sent from Moelkt 
on the left bank with orders to urge on Kutusow, and 
the bad condition of the roads, must have caused some 
delay in the retrograde movements of this field-marshal. 
Thus the Emperor had expected that the first army 
of 36,000 Russians, harassed in the rear by 20,000 
men, and cut off at the front by 50,000, would be either 
taken or destroyed. This result should have decided 
the fate of the campaign and Frederic’s indecision; it 
had seemed to him infallible, and it had just slipped 
through his hands. Murat, who had been so success- 
ful with his stratagem with the Austrians on the bridge 
at Vienna, was caught by the Russians by a similar 
stratagem at the very moment when he should have 
been enjoying the fruits of his own; and this is how 
it happened : 

Kutusow, while hurrying his retreat from Krems 
upon Brunn, with the view of protecting it against Murat, 
had sent Bagration and 7,000 Russians at his right 
into Hollabrunn on the road to Bohemia which he 
would have to cross at Znaim. Murat was coming up 
the same road at the head of 50,000 men; and would 
only have had to attack, to drive on and overthrow 
everything before him up to Znaim, where he would 

17 


226 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


have preceded, taken or destroyed the Russian Marshal. 
But he had met Bagration at Hollabrunn; and instead 
of passing over his body he had lost time in listening 
to his parleyings. A feigned capitulation of the Russian 
general lulled him for twenty-four hours, during which 
Kutusow dispersed behind Hollabrunn and towards 
Brunn in the utmost haste. 

It was on November 15th, on the word of Wint- 
zigerode, Alexander’s aide-de-camp, that this absurd 
convention entrapped our Emperor's brother-in-law. 

But what is still less conceivable is that Napoleon, 
contrary to his usual custom, should have abandoned 
this great stroke to his lieutenant, and that on Novem- 
ber 14th, trusting in him, he should have returned to 
Schcenbrunn. Did he mistrust Vienna? Had it given 
him pleasure to show himself that day to its inhabitants, 
completely taken aback to see him return within their 
walls by the gate of the Danube? Was he ina hurry 
to proclaim loudly, as he did, the immensity of the 
trophies, which this capital of the enemy had surren- 
dered to his victorious arms? Or rather, judging by my 
mission to Marmont and by the distribution of Davout’s 
divisions thrown out upon Neustadt, Presburg and 
Brunn, on the three avenues of Vienna, had he 
feared a fresh attack and judged his presence on 
this central point still indispensable to make sure 
of its possession? I know not, but what is certain, 
is, that on the news of this insidious convention, bit- 
terly repenting his confidence in Murat, he sent him 
word to break off everything at once and to attack. 
He himself had hastened there in a fit of anger, but 
he only arrived on the 17th after the tardy and bloody 
meeting at Hollabrunn, where on the evening of the 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 227 


16th, Bagration, sacrificing two-thirds of the 7,000 
Russians he commanded, had during six consecutive 
hours arrested the efforts of 20,000 men. 

During the dark night that followed, several strata- 
gems of war favoured the flight of the remainder of 
this division. Some of them on realizing their danger, 
cried out in French that they were of ours, and were 
allowed to scatter themselves, others repeating the 
same words let us approach until we were close 
to their fire, and thus added to our losses, Oudinot, 
whose place Duroc had taken with his division of 
grenadiers, fell wounded with the greater part of the 
officers around him. The carnage had been frightful. 
We had conquered, it is true, but the next day on 
arrival at Znaim, Kutusow had passed by. During 
the following day, no one had been picked up except 
his laggards, who were so exhausted that they were 
unable to defend themselves. Two thousand fell into 
the hands of Sebastiani. And this retreat in which 
Kutusow should have perished altogether, only cost 
him six thousand men. At Brunn he had rejoined 
his Emperor, who had arrived there from Berlin; he 
brought back to him 30,000 men whom he was 
going to unite near Wischau, beyond Brunn, to the 
second Russian army of Buxwoden, to the remainder 
of the Austrian army, and soon probably to the Arch- 
duke Charles. 

Thus following on the campaign of Ulm which had 
come to such a complete issue, that of Vienna remained 
undecided. It devolved on us to unite, to revictual, 
to prepare for the possibility of having to give a 
great battle in the depths of Moravia, at the end ofa 
long line of operations, by which Prussia was threaten- 


228 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP.. 


ing the whole of the left flank, from Strasburg to 
Vienna. Such was the danger of our position, which 
had just been augmented by the mistake of Holla- 
brunn. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 
AUSTERLITZ. 


ROM Znaim the Emperor proceeded towards Brunn, 
pursuing Kutusow and causing him to be out- 
flanked on the right by Soult at Nikolsberg. On 
November 2oth he pushed on this right wing from 
Nikolsberg to Austerlitz, and our advance guard under 
Murat towards Wischau on the road to Olmutz, 
himself arriving that day at Brunn. Surprised and 
delighted at the inconceivable abandonment of this 
stronghold which was full of arms and provisions, he 
made it his base of operations against the Russian army. 
Whilst occupied in this manner he learnt of the 
junction of the enemy’s forces in Wischau, and that, 
at Posorsitz, their cavalry, after having forced back our 
own, had been repulsed by our cuirassiers and by the 
mounted grenadiers of our guard. On the 2rst, he 
betook himself to the field of battle, studying the 
moves which he considered less brilliant than had 
been reported to him; and, learning that the enemy 
had retired to his reinforcements as far as Olmutz, he 
returned to Brunn. 
On going back to Wischau he stopped on the 
highway about two leagues and a half from Brunn, 
near the Santon, a small mound by the side of the 


229 


230 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


road, a kind of rather abruptly truncated cone, and 
gave orders that the foot of it should be dug out 
towards the enemy’s side so as to increase its escarp- 
ment. Then turning off towards the south he entered 
a high plain contained between two embanked streams 
running from the north to the south-west. The width 
of this plateau is about two leagues; its length, three 
leagues; beyond which, turning to the west it trends 
downwards and falls into a basin defined by two 
lakes. The Emperor slowly and silently went over 
this newly-discovered ground, stopping several times 
on its most elevated points, principally towards Pratzen. 
He carefully examined all its characteristics, and during 
this survey turned towards us saying: “Gentlemen, 
“examine this ground carefully, it is going to be a battle- 
“field, you will have a part to play upon it!” This 
plain was indeed to be a few days later the field 
of the battle of Austerlitz! 

The following days until the 27th he remained at 
Brunn. His army for three months had never ceased 
to be on the march or in combat; he allowed it to 
reunite, and restore its strength, its arms, repair its foot- 
gear and take breath. It was thus distributed: Marmont 
to Gratz; Mortier to Vienna; Davout in part to Presburg, 
watching Hungary, which had declared itself neutral, 
and in part to Nikolsberg, between Brunn and Vienna; 
Lannes, Murat, and Soult were encamped around and in 
front of the Emperor on the ground defined by Brunn, 
Wischau and Austerlitz; finally Bernadotte at his rear 
but within reach occupied Iglau, watching Bohemia 
where the Archduke Ferdinand was holding his ground 
against d’Hilliers and that general’s foot dragoons. 

We had been in Brunn for six days when the Em- 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 231 


peror, agitated by the news of the disaster at Trafalgar, 
and the increasing hostile dispositions of Prussia, and 
already weary of his own inaction, was disquieting 
himself concerning the temporizing policy favoured by 
the Russian army. This was indeed the most danger- 
ous system which Alexander could oppose to his good 
luck. Each day increased the peril of our isolated and 
distant position. Napoleon having ventured into the 
very depths of Moravia with 65,000 combatants within 
reach, whilst 150,000 Prussians threatened the whole 
of the left flank of his retreat, found himself brought 
to a stand in front by Alexander and go,ooo Rus- 
sians and Germans: whilst the Archduke Ferdinand 
and 20,000 Austrians were advancing on his rear in 
Bohemia, and simultaneously the Archduke Charles 
and 40,000 other Imperials, already in Hungary, were 
hurrying up against his right! 

This is the reason that on November 26th with his 
patience exhausted after a whole night of work, he 
wrote to the Emperor Alexander, and sent his aide-de- 
camp Savary to compliment him, and to sound his war- 
like or pacific inclinations. Whilst awaiting his aide- 
de-camp’s return, two Austrian envoys followed by the 
Prussian minister Haugwitz, the former from Olmutz, 
and the latter from Berlin, arrived at the Imperial 
quarters. On November 27th he was trying to pre- 
vent the one from entering into any explanations, 
and avoiding giving a reply to the two others, when 
he suddenly learnt that his advance guard had been 
surprised and overthrown at Wischau. At the same 
time a Bavarian officer, who had enlisted in the army 
of the enemy, deserted their side and came to warn 
us that it was Kutusow and Alexander himself who 


232 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


were attacking us. This at first appeared to Berthier 
so unlikely that he caused the fugitive to be arrested ; 
but his report received swift confirmation by advices 
from Marshal Soult who was assailed in Austerlitz. 

The return of Savary that very evening left no longer 
any doubt as to this news. ‘This aide-de-camp came 
to tell us that the whole of the allied army without 
waiting for a reinforcement of 14,000 Russians were 
marching upon us; notwithstanding which, the letter he 
brought back seemed less hostile. From that moment 
Napoleon, no longer expecting anything except from 
Alexander or a victory, sent back to Vienna and to 
Talleyrand the Austrian and Prussian negotiators; 
again despatching Savary to the Russian Emperor to 
propose an interview, and very early on November 
28th himself advanced to Posorsitz in the hope of a 
favourable reply. 

But Alexander, badly Se anied and wrongly ad- 
vised by a set of presumptuous youths, decided that an 
interview was useless, and only despatched his favourite. 
On his side Napoleon more and more impatient pushed 
on at a galop beyond our last vedettes. 

Dolgorouki and our Emperor encountered each other 
on the high road of Olmutz in front of Posorsitz and, 
to our great astonishment, beyond the range of the 
guns of our advance posts. We did not know whether 
the Emperor was running this risk out of real im- 
patience or curiosity, or with a view of increasing 
the enemy’s presumption by a feigned anxiety not to 
allow any chance of investigation of our ranks by the 
Russians. 

On first sight of each other both dismounted; we 
were not able to overhear all that passed in this inter- 





OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 233 


view; the Emperor’s attitude was at first calm and 
restrained, that of Dolgorouki on the contrary was so 
vainglorious and haughty that when not irritated by 
it, it inspired us with pity as being utterly ridiculous 
and out of place. 

In the midst of this colloquy which lasted about a 
quarter of an hour, the Emperor remarked that the 
Cossacks of the Russian’s escort were edging up to 
our flanks; Dolgorouki smilingly answered for them, 
but either from real or simulated anxiety Napoleon 
ordered several of us to keep them at a respectful 
distance, and this was at once done by Exelmans, 
with his naked sabre hanging from his sword knot, 
and his pistol in his fist. 

But as the arrogance of Alexander’s favourite was 
becoming unbearable, the Emperor’s voice rose louder. 
The young Russian would not hear of peace on other 
conditions than the abandonment of Italy, of the left 
bank of the Rhine, and of Belgium! “ What! Brussels 
“also?” answered Napoleon; “ But we are in Moravia, and 
“even if you were on the heights of Montmartre you 
“should not obtain Brussels.” At last he lost patience. 
Dolgorouki had offered to let him draw back safe 
and sound beyond the Danube if he would promise 
at once to evacuate Vienna and the Hereditary States. 
Napoleon, no longer able to contain himself at this 
insult, exclaimed: “ Withdraw; go, Sir, and tell your 
“master that it is not my custom to allow insolence ; 
“withdraw this very moment!” When he had got back 
to our advance guard, the Emperor, still in a state of 
irritation, dismounted and held converse with Savary. 
During the aide-de-camp’s double mission, the young 
Russian noblemen had insulted the latter by their 


234 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


arrogant expressions which he repeated and Napoleon 
struck the ground with his riding whip while listening 


“what would they have done with France if I had been 
“beaten ? But as they will have it so, I wash my hands 
“of it; and, please God, in forty-eight hours I shall 
“give them a severe lesson!” These last words were 
spoken in the hearing of a soldier of the 17th light 
regiment, and perceiving that this sentry was listening: 
“Do you know,” said Napoleon, “these people think 
“that they are going to swallow us up!” Upon which 
the grenadier having replied: “Let them just try it, 
“we should soon choke them!” the Emperor began to 
laugh and his ill-humour vanished. 

Then he commenced the retreat, following it himself 
on foot, either because he thought he was too much 
in sight, or with a view of increasing the enemy’s 
presumption; the pace being taken at a speed which 
probably emboldened the Russians. One of ourselves, 
an old republican veteran, was misled by it, and said 
to me: “This begins badly! young man, it is not 
“enough to be always advancing; you have yet to learn 
“what it is to fall back, and possibly even to be 
“routed!” I was surprised at this free comment on 
Napoleon, such liberty of judgment having become 
rare. Most of us gave ourselves up to a conviction 
of his infallibility and executed the orders of the day 
without looking beyond, without any care for the 
morrow, sure of victory if we obeyed. Such sub- 
mission places useful instruments in the hands of an 
extraordinary man, but is too often the reason why he 
leaves behind him few chiefs who are worthy to take 
his place. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 235 


This first retrograde movement was a brief one. 

November 29th and 30th were spent in reviews and 
recognizances. Never was a battle-field more carefully 
gone over or better prepared. On the 29th, what 
seemed to concern him the most, was the defence of 
the Santon which he at once retrenched, armed and 
victualled like a fort. He sent me there several times 
either to repeat his orders, or to see that they had 
been executed, and was not satisfied without coming 
back himself and going up the incline on foot. He 
immediately posted there General Claparede and the 
17th light infantry, ordering them to burn their last 
cartridge and get themselves killed there to a man if 
necessary. 

Already, however, the march of the Russian columns, 
and their movements of cavalry from afar and beyond 
our right wing, indicated to the Emperor that they 
would make their greatest attempt on the other side 
of our line. Whilst watching them, he rejoiced at 
this, and allowed them to go on, knowing that one 
can not turn a strong and well-prepared enemy 
without being turned oneself, and that the result would 
show which of the two had really cut off the retreat 
of the other! 

This reflection was evidently in his mind, when on 
November 30th, having stopped on the great plateau 
of Pratzen which extends towards Austerlitz, he pro- 
nounced in our hearing these words which the event 
of the day after next rendered prophetic ones: “ As 
“master of this grand position,” he said, “it would be 
“easy for me to stop the Russians here; but in that 
“case, it would only be an ordinary battle, whereas, 
“by abandoning it to them and withdrawing my right, 


236 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“if they dare to come down from these heights to sur- 
“round me, they will be lost without resource! ” 

Consequently, already on that and the following day, 
1st December, withdrawn behind this plateau, an oblique 
line of battle was taken up, the left thrown forward 
and the right refused, and as it were hidden behind 
the lakes Melnitz and Telnitz or Satschau. Our extreme 
left on the contrary appearing strong was thrown 
forward, and rested on the steep mound named the 
Santon. 

This oblique position seemed only a defensive one, 
even showing timidity, negligently guarded in the 
centre and particularly on the right, it only seemed 
formidable on the left, but Bernadotte and our reserves 
could with a rush take in reverse any attack made 
against our centre or our right. The enemy’s army 
on the contrary, weaker in front of our left on the 
road to Olmutz, and which was separated from the 
rest by the ravine of Blazowitz, was heaped together 
unprotected in the centre, on the plateau of Pratzen: 
its left was extended afar, towards Aujerzd, to throw 
it against our right withdrawn behind the lakes. 

The forces were unequal: g0,000 men against 65,000. 
The advantage in number was on the side of the allies 
to an excess of 25,000, but was made up for by the 
accidents of locality. Of the two opposed lines, one 
was fully in view, and the other masked, which was 
the first advantage. They formed as it were two arcs 
of a circle, of which ours was in the closest order, a 
second advantage, which was soon increased by an 
imprudent manceuvre of Alexander. 

On the one hand a thick screen of Cossacks, and 
a clear line of vedettes on our side within range of 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 237 


musket-shot, covered the two fronts. Whilst behind 
their outpost lines, the two armies about double gun 
shot range apart with their arms stacked, were tran- 
quilly eating and reposing round their fires as if by 
tacit accord in preparation for the following day, Na- 
poleon, followed by some of us and twenty chasseurs 
of his guard had advanced between the two lines, 
and was measuring their extent from right to left. He 
was making this last general recognizance so leisurely, 
at a foot’s pace, and so close to the enemy, that 
when near Pratzen, Daumesnil, the captain of his escort 
of chasseurs, since celebrated by the defence of Vin- 
cennes, and myself, heedlessly provoked the line of 
the enemy within range of pistol-shot for which we 
were severely reprimanded: having drawn upon us 
several shots which whistled round the Emperor’s head. 

I even remember that not being sufficiently alive 
to our imprudence, when we had got to the extreme 
left beyond the Santon, and whilst Napoleon was 
examining the approaches to it, an argument arose 
between us as to the distance which separated us 
at this spot from the enemy, and this very Daumesnil, 
who was an excellent shot, wishing to prove their 
proximity to us, took hold of the carbine of one of 
his men, resting its barrel on his shoulder, and with a 
single shot unhorsed a Russian officer who stood out 
from the others by the dazzling whiteness of his mount. 

Towards three o’clock, having completed his recog- 
nizance, the Emperor returned to his bivouac. He had 
established his quarters on the right near the high 
road, at the rear to the right of the Santon, and in 
front of Bellowitz, between the stream of that village 
and that of Ghirzikowitz. It was a woodman’s hut, 


238 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


a great round place with a fire in the middle, lighted 
from the top, and which his grenadiers had built at 
the summit of a high hillock which commanded a 
view of the plain. His coach with the horses taken 
out, was close by, in which he had slept the preceding 
nights. There was also near here and the high road, 
a labourer’s isolated abode, a poor cottage where his 
canteens had been established, and where we used 
to dine with him in the one low room, and at the one 
long table with benches all round which furnished it. 
The division of Duroc and Oudinot’s grenadiers were 
encamped to the front, the guard was all round and 
to the rear. 

He had just arrived there, when, about four o’clock, 
on a report from our advance guard he came out of 
his quarters with a telescope in his hand, which he 
directed towards the plateau of Pratzen in front of 
him to the right. A great flank movement of the 
centre of the Russian army was taking place there. 
Behind ‘his first line “the columns, of) the “enemy 
could be seen extending themselves to their left and 
exposed towards Aujerzd and the two lakes. At 
this sight, with a thrill of joy, and clapping his 
hands, he exclaimed: “ That is a shameful movement! 
“they are walking into the trap; they are giving them- 
“selves away; before to-morrow night this army will 
“belong to me.” 

It was indeed evident that the Russians in the pride 
of their inexperience, fancying that we were struck 
with fear, and resigned to a timid defence, imagined 
that they had nothing to fear in front of them, and 
only thought of throwing themselves upon our right, 
between us and Vienna so as to turn us and 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 239 


to cut off all retreat to our inevitable rout on the follow- 
ing day. Thus they ventured under our very eyes to 
converge their principal forces to this side, thus stripping ' 
their centre, and abandoning on their weakened right 
wing their line of operations or retreat. One would 
have said that conquerors already, with no other 
fear than that of letting us escape, they thought of 
nothing but despatching us, and not at all of the 
possibility that they might be forced to defend them- 
selves. 

In order still more to swell their presumption, the 
Emperor at once instructed Murat to issue from the 
ranks with some cavalry, and to make a feint of 
hesitation and anxiety, and then draw back as if fright- 
ened. Having given this order, he returned to his 
bivouac, and there, in a proclamation which he dictated 
from his carriage, and immediately sent round, 
after pointing out to his soldiers the Russian army 
presenting its flank to them and offering an assured 
triumph to their valour, he told them that he was 
himself directing their battalions, and promised that 
he would not expose himself unless victory were 
uncertain, but after it was won they should have good 
cantonments and peace. Then going in with us into 
the neighbouring hut he gaily sat down to table. 

Murat and Caulaincourt were seated next to him, 
then Junot, General Mouton, Rapp, Lemarois, Lebrun, 
Macon, Thiard, Yvan and myself. The meal lasted 
some time, contrary to the habit of the Emperor who 
seldom spent more than twenty minutes at table, but the 
conversation was the attraction. As for myself, in the 
full persuasion that its subject would be the great 
event which was on the point of deciding his fortunes, 


240 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


I was all aitention; but nothing of the kind happened. 
At the very outset, Napoleon addressing Junot, who 
piqued himself on being rather literary, led the con- 
versation on dramatic poetry. The latter having an- 
swered by quoting several new tragedies, Napoleon, 
as if entirely oblivious of the Russian army, the war, 
and the next day’s battle, disagreed with him, entered 
fully into the subject and, with some warmth, declared : 

“That in his eyes, none of these authors had under- 
“stood the new principle which ought to serve for a 
“base to our modern tragedies. He had told the 
“author of ‘7he Templars’ that his tragedy was a bad 
“one; he knew very well that the poet would never 
“forgive him; and for the matter of that, the self-love 
“of an author was inexorable. If you wanted any 
“praise from these gentlemen, you must first praise 
“them. In the whole piece there was only one sustained 
“character which was that of a man who wanted to 
“die. But that is not natural and therefore worthless; 
“one must desire to live and know how to die! 

“Look at Corneille,” he cried, “what strength of 
“conception! He would have made a statesman. But 
“as for ‘Zhe Templars’ there is no policy in the piece. 
“He ought to have put Philip Augustus into such a 
“position that it should be a necessity for him to 
“destroy them; while interesting the public in their 
“safety, he should have made it feel strongly that 
“their existence was incompatible with that of the 
“monarchy; that they had become a danger by their 
“number, their riches and their power; that the safety 
“of the throne demanded their destruction ! 

“To-day that the glamour of the pagan religion no 
“longer exists, our tragic stage requires another motive. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 241 


“Politics should be the great spring of modern tragedy, 
“Policy should take the place on our theatre of ancient 
“fatality ; that fatality which rendered Cdipus a criminal 
“although he was not guilty; which causes us to feel 
“an interest in Phedra by throwing on the Gods part 
“of the burden of her crimes and her weaknesses. 
“These principles are both to be found in Iphigenia; 
“this is the masterpiece of art, the masterpiece of 
“Racine, who has been unjustly accused of being defi- 
“cient in strength !” 

He continued: “That it was an error to imagine 
“tragic subjects were exhausted; that there were any 
“number of them in the necessities of politics; but it 
“was necessary to be able to feel and strike this chord; 
“that in this principle, which was an abundant source 
“of strong emotions, a fruitful germ of the most critical 
“situations, and of itself a fatality as imperious and 
“dominating as the fatality of the ancients, one would 
“find many advantages; it was only necessary to place 
“your personages in opposition to other passions or 
“other inclinations, under the absolute influence of this 
“powerful necessity. Thus, whatever was called ‘coup 
“d'état, or political crime, would become a subject for 
“tragedy, in which, horror being tempered by neces- 
“sity, a new and sustained interest would develop 
“itself.” 

Then followed some examples, but none bearing on 
the recollection which possibly inspired him the most 
at this moment. One of them carried him back to 
the time of the campaign in Egypt; apropos of 
which, passing on to a subject more conformable to 
our present situation and to the habits of most of 


those who were around him: “ Yes,” he resumed, “ had 
18 


242 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“TI taken possession of Acre, I should have worn a 
“turban ; I should have put my army into wide trousers; 
“T would no longer have exposed it except in the last 
“extremity ; I should have made it my sacred battalion, 
“my immortals! I should have finished the war against 
“the Turks with Arabs, Greeks, and Armenians. In- 
“stead of a battle in Moravia, I should have won a 
“battle on the Issus, created myself Emperor of the 
“Kast, and returned to Paris by way of Constan- 
“tinople.” 

These last words were accompanied by a smile, 
seeming to imply that he was yielding to an impulse 
which carried him away on the wings of some youth- 
ful dream of his conquering imagination. A dream 
which, nevertheless, might possibly have been realized; 
since, according to the irrefutable testimony of travel- 
lers who were at that time in Libanus, 100,000 Chris- 
tians had expected him on that side, fixing all their 
hopes upon him, and ready to join his forces at the 
first signal of the taking of Acre. 

At this moment I hazarded the remark in a low 
tone of voice: “ That if Constantinople were in question, 
we were still on the road to that capital!” I do not 
know if Junot overheard me, or whether, entertaining 
the same thought, he considered it advisable to repeat 
my words; but Napoleon answered: “No, I know 
“the French; they never believe themselves well off in 
“any place where they happen to be. Long expeditions 
“are not easy for them. Come now; collect the voices 
“of the army; you will hear them all cry out for France. 
“The French are like that, that is their character. 
“France is too attractive, they do not like to be so 
“far, or to remain so long away from her!” Junot 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 243 


having urged against this the manifestation of warlike 
ardour which broke out in all the ranks, General Mou- 
ton, with his austere voice, abruptly interrupted him 
thus: “These acclamations prove the contrary, do not 
“be led away by this, the army is tired out; it has 
“had enough of it; and although it would obey if or- 
“dered still further afield, it would be with reluctance; 
“only indeed manifesting such ardour on the eve ofa 
“battle because hoping to have done with it all the 
“next day, and return home! ” 

The Emperor, who could not have been much pleased 
with these outspoken utterances, yet confirmed their 
truth; but he broke up the conversation, and rose up 
from table saying: “In the meanwhile, let us go and 
Sfight!” 

Day, however, was declining; the enemy’s move- 
ment to the left was still going on, and Napoleon, 
whose arrangements were all made, after having 
renewed his instructions, visited his parks and his am- 
bulances, assuring himself with his own eyes that all 
his orders had been executed. He was coming back 
to his bivouac, when, hearing some lively firing on 
his right, he sent one of us in that direction, and then 
throwing himself on the straw in his hut fell fast 
asleep. He was still sleeping, and the night of the 
ist to the 2nd of December was far spent, when the 
aide-de-camp returned, and waking him up with some 
difficulty, informed him that a hot attack in the direc- 
tion of the lakes upon one of the last villages on our 
right, had been repulsed. This confirmed his previsions; 
but, desirous of himself reconnoitring for the last time, 
by the light of the camp fires, the positions of the 
enemy, he remounted his horse, and followed by a few 


244 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


amongst us, adventured himself between the two lines. 

He was walking along them when, in spite of several 
warnings, having in the darkness directed his steps 
towards Pratzen, I think, he unwittingly came across 
a post of Cossacks. These sprang out upon him so 
suddenly, that he would certainly have been taken 
or killed, but for the devotion of the chasseurs of his 
escort, and had he not returned to our fires at full 
speed. His return was so hurried that being obliged 
to cross without picking his way the marshy stream 
which protected our front, several of the men and horses 
who followed. him got bogged there, amongst them 
Yvan, his body-surgeon since 1796, whose duty was 
never to be away from his person. 

Having crossed the stream, the Emperor regained 
on foot, from one fire to another, his own bivouac. 
As he approached it in the darkness, he stumbled 
over the trunk of a tree lying on the ground, and 
one of the grenadiers noticing this, conceived the idea 
of twisting his straw so as to make a torch of it, 
which he lit, and raising it above his head, used it as 
a torch to light the steps of his Emperor. 

In the middle of the night, which was that of the 
eve of the anniversary of the coronation, this flame 
which illumined and suddenly disclosed the countenance 
of Napoleon, seemed like a signal to the soldiers in 
the neighbouring bivouacs; one cry rose up: “ It is the 
“anniversary of the coronation; Long live the Emperor!” 
an impulse of sudden enthusiasm which Napoleon 
vainly tried to check. -“ Silence,” “he: said, > “tillite= 
“morrow; think of nothing now but sharpening your 
“bayonets! ” 

Already the same thought, the same cry had spread 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 245 


with the rapidity of lightning, and was repeated from 
fire to fire: each one not to be outdone and grasp- 
ing the idea, tore up his shelter; and fastening the straw 
at the end of every pole they could lay hands on, 
they set them alight, so that in a moment, over a line 
of two leagues, millions of sheaves of flames rose up 
to the reiterated cries of “ Vive ?Empereur!”.... 
Thus was improvised under the eyes of the astonished 
enemy, the most memorable illumination, the most 
touching féte ever offered to its general by the admira- 
tion and devotion of a whole army. 

The Russians, it was said, imagined that because 
we were burning our shelters, we were going to leave 
the ground, and their presumption went on increasing. 
As for Napoleon, who was first annoyed, but afterwards 
greatly moved and touched, he exclaimed: “ That this 
“evening was the grandest in his life! ” and he proceeded 
from bivouac to bivouac, some considerable distance 
from his own, to testity his gratitude to his soldiers. 

During the rest of the night, in spite of his fatigue, 
either through emotion or because he had been 
awake to receive several reports of the march of the 
Russians upon his right, he slept very little. 

At last when the morning of December 2 was 
beginning to dawn, he called us into his hut. Here 
we were served with a slight repast, which he took 
with us standing; then buckling on his sword: * Now, 
“gentlemen,” he said, “let us go and begin a grand 
“day!” Each of us then ran to his horses. A moment 
afterwards, on the summit of this hillock, which our 
soldiers had called “ the Emperor’s mound,” from various 
points of our line we saw all the heads of our main 
body hasten up, each followed by an aide-de-camp. 


246 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


Napoleon had desired that they should thus all 
come at once to receive his last commands. They 
were: the Prince Marshal Murat, Marshal Lannes, 
Marshal Bernadotte, Marshal Soult, and Marshal Davout. 
At this solemn instant these marshals formed around 
the Emperor the most formidable assemblage which 
imagination can conceive. What a marvellous spec- 
tacle! how many united glories were to be found in 
this redoubtable circle! How many warlike chieftains, 
justly and diversely celebrated, surrounded the greatest 
man of war of ancient or modern times! I think I 
can still see them, receiving his inspiration, as it were, 
like bearers of Jove’s thunder-bolts, scatter themselves 
abroad to shatter the united forces of two empires. 
Could my life last as long as the world endures, the 
impression of such a spectacle would never fade from 
my memory. Thus began one of the most celebrated 
days in our history!.... How quickly the times have 
altered! In those days how grand was everything, 
what glorious times! what splendid men and what 
magnificent careers! 

The Emperor’s first words to his marshals gave 
them the key to his plan of campaign. He still felt 
so convinced, owing to the reports brought to him 
during the night, that the enemy was continuing his 
flank movement, and throwing himself on our right, 
with the sole thought of leaving him no chance of 
escape, that he ‘once ‘more exclaimed: “Wes it ised 
“shameful movement! they must think me a greenhorn; 
“but they will soon repent of it,” and on the spot he 
renewed his orders to each and all. 

Davout, the head of whose harassed column was 
only just appearing in sight, received orders to stop 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 247 


the enemy on our extreme right, at the end of the 
defile which was bordered by the lakes, and towards 
which they were still pressing forwards. 

Soult received the same order for his division on 
the right; and his other two divisions already formed 
in attacking columns beyond the stream at the 
openings of the two villages, were instructed to be 
ready to dash out upon the central plateau of the 
battle. 

Bernadotte, who would come up obliquely from our 
left, was also to assail the plateau at the same time 
and on the same side. 

This simultaneous effort of four divisions against the 
centre of the Austro-Russians, thinned by their move- 
ment to the front and left, was to be supported by 
the Emperor himself with his double reserve of the 
united grenadiers and his own guard. 

At the same time, on our left wing, Murat and his 
cavalry were to charge in the intervals of Lannes’ 
artillery; then drawing back behind it, they would 
attract the onrush of the enemy’s cavalry which seemed 
strong on that side, and would bring it under the fire 
of our battalions. 

The Emperor concluded with these words: “In half- 
“an-hour, the entire line must be in a blaze!” 

Thus, whilst on the left, a defensive attitude would 
be adopted by our troops, withdrawn to the bottom 
of a valley into which the enemy was advancing and 
becoming entangled; the central plateau where the 
allies, by their movement to the left, opposed but a 
weakened front, would be carried by an attack in 
force. The two wings of the enemy would thus be 
suddenly divided by this decisive stroke. The one, 


248 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


attacked on the front and outflanked by our victory 
on the centre would be forced to give way; whilst 
the other, which had advanced too far, finding itself 
turned and overcome by the same central victory, 
would be completely hemmed in against the lakes in 
this cut-throat pass in which it had risked itself, and 
would there be crushed or taken. Here we have the 
battle as it was conceived and carried out! 

After having repeated his orders to his marshals, 
the Emperor said to each one of them: “Go!” and 
each in turn carrying his head high, full of eagerness, 
made the military salute and went his way. When 
it came to SBernadotte’s turn, the Emperor’s voice 
took a noticeably dry and imperious tone, and when 
a few moments after, the marshal’s two divisions were 
starting for the point of attack, he harangued them 
himself. The proclamation of the night before was 
read by the light of the camp fires, and he added to 
it: “That to-day, the Russian pride was to be brought 
“low, and the war to be concluded by a thunder- 
Fbolt.!? 

During this time the rising sun was obscured by 
heavy mists which seemed to the Russians to favour 
their flank movement forwards to the left; but on the 
contrary they veiled our attack, only deferred to 
surprise this imprudent and foolish manceuvre in the 
very act. 

They had already attacked our oblique line on the 
right, which was well to the rear and refused, from 
Telnitz to Sokolnitz in the direction of the low ground 
near the lakes, where, in their rivalry to get forward 
they had crowded together and assailed us as they were. 

It was not yet eight o’clock and silence and dark- 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 249 


ness were still reigning over the rest of the line, when, 
beginning with the heights, the sun suddenly breaking 
through this thick fog, disclosed to our sight the 
plateau of Pratzen growing empty of troops from the 
flank march of the enemy’s columns. As for us who 
had remained in the ravine which defines the foot of 
this plateau, the smoke of the bivouacs and the vapours 
which, heavier on this point than elsewhere, still hung 
around, concealed from the eyes of the Russians our 
centre deployed in columns and ready for the attack. 

On seeing this, Marshal Soult, whom the Emperor 
had kept last by his side, wanted to hasten to his 
divisions and give them the signal; but Napoleon, 
calmer than he, still held him back that the enemy 
might rush upon his own ruin; and pointing to Prat- 
zen, asked: “ How much time do you require to crown 
“that summit?” “Ten minutes,” answered the marshal.— 
“Then go,” resumed the Emperor, “but you can wait 
“another quarter-of-an-hour, and it will be time enough 
ethen |” 

The moment having arrived, the divisions of Van- 
damme and Saint Hilaire springing out of the mist 
which enveloped them, suddenly appeared on the 
scene. It was then eight o’clock. The plateau attacked 
on the front and in flank was scaled at a quick step. The 
first cannon fired on that point was on the side of the 
Russians. The enemy was completely surprised; 
some were still marching towards their left, the others 
were facing us on three lines, holding their ground 
badly. Their first fire was disregarded, we attacked 
with our sidearms, and their lines one after the other 
turned tail, leaving their knapsacks on the ground 
before them, abandoning their artillery even, and flying 


250 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


before our bayonets. On our own side at nine o’clock 
the battle, which was painfully on the defensive behind 
on the right, already victorious to the front at the 
centre, and threatening to our left, was engaged on 
our whole front. 

Towards eleven o'clock, all had succeeded according 
to the Emperor’s previsions. The Russian centre had 
been broken and its two wings separated; but it was 
necessary to retain this advantage and profit by it; to 
maintain the centre against the Russian reserves and 
to surprise on the flank and rear simultaneously the 
masses of the enemy’s left, whilst they threw them- 
selves violently against our right which they were 
bearing down. [rom the height of the central posi- 
tion which he had just gained so rapidly we could 
hear their fire in the rear to the right of us. 

Towards midday I rejoined the Emperor. I was 
returning by his orders from calling up his foot guard, 
and conducting the united grenadiers of the reserve 
to an eminence behind the stream and this plateau. 
He and his horse guards had taken up a position there, 
making Bernadotte remain on his left. He distrusted 
this marshal and sent me to repeat his orders to him, 
and to watch how they were carried out. 

I found Bernadotte on foot at the head of his in- 
fantry, agitated and uneasy, expecting from his sol- 
diers a calmness of which he did not set them the 
example. This anxiety was not, it is true, devoid of 
reason; pointing out to me the formidable masses of 
cavalry which were gathering in front of him, he 
complained somewhat too loudly that he had not a 
single squadron to oppose to them, and besought me 
so earnestly to go and beg Napoleon to send some 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 251 


cavalry to his aid that not being able to resist his 
entreaties, I undertook to convey them to the Em- 
peror. Napoleon answered with some impatience: 
“Why, he knows very well that I have not any to 
spare!” At this very moment he had just collected 
in front of him all he had at hand, consisting of all the 
cavalry of his guard with one battery of artillery. At 
the same time forced in his turn to thin the central 
plateau, he threw out to the right Soult’s two divisions 
which were also on the flank and rear of the left wing of 
the Austro-Russians, whom he thus completely cut off 
from the rest. In this movement an offensive return 
of the allied infantry supported by the Russian guard, 
very nearly shook Vandamme and Saint-Hilaire who 
repulsed it at the point of the bayonet: this was the 
critical moment of the battle! 

It was now one o'clock, Napoleon from the summit 
of this commanding plateau, could see before him 
Alexander’s guard advancing in a mass to drive him 
away and re-take it. At the same moment he could 
hear in the rear to his right the renewed firing of the 
Russians’ advanced left. They were 30,000 men against 
less than 10,000 of ours who were endeavouring to 
hold their ground against them. It looked as if they 
were very nearly becoming masters of those very 
positions behind us whence we had advanced that 
morning. On this side the action in the hollow 
was hidden from him. The sound of its tumult, 
however, was becoming so threatening, that, with- 
drawing his glance from the decisive attack which 
was going to take place in front, and seeing behind 
him a black mass of moving troops, he exclaimed: 
“What! can those be the Russians?” On my reply 


252 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


(for I alone happened to be near him at the moment) 
that it must be his own reserve, he ordered me to go 
off at full gallop and make sure of it. 

It was indeed the division of the united grenadiers 
of our reserve. Duroc, having perceived the progress 
of the Russian left against our right was marching 
towards the lakes to come to the aid of Soult and 
Davout. 

I had hardly returned, and re-assured the Emperor 
as to what was going on in his rear, when in front 
of him began the attack of Alexander’s horse guard. 
It was so impetuous that Vandamme’s two battalions 
on the left were completely overwhelmed! one of them 
indeed, covered with blood, and having lost its eagle 
and the greater part of its arms only got up to run 
away at full speed. This battalion was that of the 
4th regiment, which almost passed over us, and Na- 
poleon himself, our effort to arrest it being in vain. 
The unfortunate fellows were quite distracted with 
fear and could listen to nothing; in reply to our re- 
proaches for thus deserting the field of battle and 
their Emperor they shouted mechanically * Vzve l’Em- 
“pereur /” while they fled faster than ever. 

Napoleon smiled pitifully; then with a scornful 
gesture he said to us: “Let them go,” and retaining 
all his calm in the midst of the affray, he despatched 
Rapp to the cavalry of the guard, 

It was time he did so, but a single moment is 
enough to change everything. Rapp reappeared on 
the scene, announcing almost directly to the Emperor 
the complete rout of the Russian guard by the French 
guard. He returned alone at a gallop, his head held 
high, his glance aflame, with a bloody forehead and 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 253 


sword, as a well-known picture represents him; but 
with this difference, that around Napoleon there was 
no wreckage of warfare, no shattered cannons, no 
dead men, no numerous staff, as the painter chose to 
depict. The ground worn by the passage of the 
combatants was perfectly bare; the Emperor was two 
or three paces in front of us on the summit, Berthier 
by his side, and behind him only Caulaincourt, Lebrun, 
Thiard, and myself. The foot guards and even the 
squadron on duty were at some considerable distance 
to the rear of our right. The other officers of the 
Emperor, Duroc, Junot, Mouton, Macon, Lemarois, 
were dispersed at distances over the whole line. Rapp 
on arriving said in a loud voice: “Sire, I took the li- 
“berty of taking your chasseurs; we have overwhelmed 
“and crushed the Russian guard and taken his artil- 
“lery.”—“It was well done, I saw it,” answered the 
Emperor; “but you are wounded, my dear fellow.” 
To which Rapp replied: “It is nothing, Sire, nothing 
“but a scratch!” and he came back to take his place 
amongst us. Savary then appeared at a foot pace, 
exhibiting his Turkish sabre, which had been broken, 
he said, in the same charge in which Rapp had just 
immortalized himself; but Rapp who hated him, and 
who happened to be near me at the moment, contra- 
dicted this, and being still very excited, said a great 
deal more. 

This victory had indeed been decided by Rapp with 
the mamelukes, whose colonel he was, and the mounted 
chasseurs of the guard. The cavalry and artillery of 
the Russian guard had been sabred and thrown to 
the ground; Ordener and his mounted grenadiers 
completed the work. A whole row of Alexander's 


254 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


unfortunate young horse guards lying on the ground 
with their death wounds in front, encumbered the 
spot where this terrible encounter had taken place. 
Other lines of dead and wounded, with the knapsacks 
of the infantry, (which it is the Russian custom to 
deposit on the ground at their feet before the combat) 
indicated the other positions where the infantry of the 
enemy’s guard had succumbed, and whose defeat was 
to be now completed by Bernadotte. Just then a 
young officer of artillery, named Apraxin, whom our 
chasseurs had taken, was brought before the Emperor 
struggling and weeping, wringing his hands in despair, 
and exclaiming: “That he had lost his battery! That 
“he was dishonoured!” Napoleon tried to console him, 
saying: “Calm yourself, young man! and remember 
“this; there can be no shame in being conquered by 
“Frenchmen! ” 

From afar could be seen the remains of the Russian 
reserves abandoning the central plateau to us, and the 
left of their army retiring in close ranks upon Auster- 
litz. They were retreating under the cannonading of 
our guard, with which the commandant Doguereau 
(to-day a peer and general of division) was furrowing 
their routed ranks. 

A few moments later in the midst of the noise of 
the firing which still thundered at our two wings, the 
Emperor despatched Lebrun to Paris to carry the news 
of his victory. In spite of the first pride of success, 
the choice of this officer was not displeasing to any 
of those around Napoleon. It was in our eyes a kind 
of reparation for some hard words which had passed the 
night before, relating to a financial error on the part of 
the minister Barbé-Marbois, father-in-law of this colonel. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 255 


The Emperor thus remained absolute master of this 
lofty and advanced centre of the battle. His attention 
was then withdrawn to his right at the rear in the 
direction of the lower end ofthe lakes. Twenty-seven 
thousand Austro-Russians, having blindly adventured 
themselves there, were still combating the 9,000 men at 
our right, whom they had not been able to force during the 
whole morning. Napoleon then pushed forwards upon the 
rear of this abandoned mass Soult’s two divisions, which 
had been victorious at the centre and at Aujerzd, our- 
selves, his reserve batteries, and even his own special 
squadron on duty. 

This unfortunate wing, overwhelmed on three sides 
under the simultaneous efforts of Davout, Soult, Duroc 
and his grenadiers, surrounded, forced, repulsed by 
Vandamme and ourselves against the lakes, sought a 
refuge there. Before reaching them the greater num- 
ber were forced to lay down arms; 2,000 only escaping 
by the road dividing the two lakes. A few other thou- 
sands in their mad terror ventured upon the ice which 
covered their surface, and in a moment this white and 
glistening mirror became suddenly black with the 
scattered multitude of fugitives, who had risked them- 
selves on the dangerous foothold which gave way 
beneath their feet under the indentation of our pitiless 
bullets. ‘rom the heights where he had remained, the 
Emperor perceiving this, exclaimed: “It is Aboukir! ” 

Indeed, we who were charging them, stopped short 
in pity at the sight of this terrible and novel spec- 
tacle; some of us even holding out a helping hand to 
these drowning men. As I passed by I pulled out a 
Cossack from the frozen water. Little did I then think 
that the following year, after having first taken part 


256 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


in the conquest of Naples and the Calabrias, then in that 
of Prussia, very far from these lakes I should meet 
with him again, and that, wounded myself, and a pris- 
oner in the centre of Poland, I should be recognised 
and succoured in my turn by this Tartar! 

It should, however, be told to the honour of this 
vanquished wing which was almost completely killed 
or taken, that its end in the trap into which it had 
fallen, was a glorious one. Hemmed in, and charged 
on all sides, it defended itself by squads to the very 
last. So much so, that after this disastrous scene, 
when some of us returned to these lakes, those who 
were still holding on there without hope, waited for 
us steadfastly till we were straight up to their pieces, 
discharging them at us point blank so that my face 
was scorched by the flame issuing from one of them. 

A few hundred foot soldiers were still resisting our 
picked squadron, when Vandamme, perceiving me, cried 
out: “Ségur, come and help me take this park of 
“artillery imbedded in the mud, which a few drunken 
“artillerymen alone are defending.” The capture was 
indeed so easy that the two of us sufficed for it. At 
this moment came up one of his battalions reduced to 
150 men; and on my exclamation at the sight of so 
small a number, he replied: “Yes, indeed; it is im- 
“possible to make a good omelette without breaking a 
“oreat many eggs!” It was in fact his division 
which had borne the brunt of the battle. 

Whilst this victory was being completed at our 
right, on our left, the Russian right wing had been 
conquered in front by Lannes and Murat with a 
loss of 6,000 men, it had been followed up on the road 
to Olmutz, whence, turning off to the left, it was 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. PAST 


nearing Austerlitz, losing its line of operations, and 
having no other refuge than by Holitch and Hun- 
gary. These Russians marched past our centre and 
Bernadotte, but the marshal, who was rather chary 
of giving himself trouble when it was a case of 
divided glory, having stopped too soon, allowed the 
defeated troops to pass by without molesting them, 
and did not even notice the singular direction they 
were taking. 

Towards four o’clock the battle was at an end, 
and nothing remained to be done but to pursue and 
pick up the scattered and routed remains. While 
giving this order, the Emperor addressed a few pleasant 
words to the ofhcers and soldiers who happened to 
be near him; then, leaving the lakes, he returned 
by our right to our left, as far as the road to Olmutz. 
Night surprised him whilst he thus walked over the 
whole line of battle, strewn with the wounded, stopping 
to speak to every one of them. The morning mist was 
then falling back in frozen rain, which rendered the 
night even darker; but ordering complete silence, the 
better to hear the groans of his poor maimed soldiers, 
he would himself hasten to their help, making Yvan 
and his mameluke give them brandy out of his own 
canteen. 

At last about ten o’clock at night, having then 
got as far as the road to Olmutz at the point where 
that of Austerlitz branches into it, he passed the night 
in the humble post-house of Posorsitz. There he supped 
off some food which the soldiers brought him from 
the neighbouring bivouacs, interrupting himself con- 
stantly to send order upon order for the wounded to 
be picked up and carried to the ambulances. It was 

19 


258 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


there, that again meeting Rapp with the wound 
across his brow, he said: “ You now possess an added 
“quarter of nobility than which I know none more 
* illustrious !” 

The next day (December 3) Murat, whose thoughts 
were solely concentrated on the side on which he had 
fought the day before, and who had seen nothing but 
what was in front of him, or perhaps was misled by certain 
reports, imagined that the whole of the enemy’s force 
was in flight towards Olmutz, on account of which the 
French army was put in movement in this false direc- 
tion. Napoleon, however, distrusting the rumour, took 
another road, and directed his own course towards 
Austerlitz, where he learnt through the unanimous 
replies of the inhabitants to his pressing inquiries, 
that the two vanquished Emperors had passed the 
night there, and that before daybreak, both Russians 
and Austrians had escaped towards Hungary by the 
road to Holitch. On this information, confirmed by 
a prompt recognisance of Thiard, it became necessary 
to change all the orders immediately, with the result 
that, for a part of the army, the day was nearly lost 
in marches and counter-marches. 

The Emperor’s irritation was extreme, but the 
previous day’s knock-down blow had ended the war. 
The enemy’s army no longer existed. At every moment 
and from every side fresh reports came in confirmation 
of the extent of this victory. This meant 4oo artillery. 
wagegons, 186 guns, 45 flags, 10,000 dead, 30,000 
prisoners and all the baggage! The two Emperors 
between them could not number 25,000 fighting men! 
The Emperor of Austria declaring that he withdrew 
from the coalition, had already sent to demand an 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 259 


armistice, an interview, peace; and at last submitted 
to the conditions which he had rcfused in front of 
Vienna. 

Napoleon put all this off till the next day, and without 
arresting his course he caused the enemy to be driven 
to the front and outflanked by his two wings. He spent 
all the rest of the day in a state of conflicting feeling, 
sometimes anxious and sometimes congratulating him- 
self. Towards evening, on a report which I brought 
to him of the position in which I had left the mounted 
chasseurs of his guard beyond the lakes which they had 
turned, he exclaimed, “They must have fallen into the 
“midst of the enemy; and probably had either allowed 
“themselves to be cut to pieces or taken.” On the 
contrary these picked men had attacked and taken all 
that they had come across. 

The Emperor could not have known at this time 
the extent of Russian discouragement. He was not 
aware that Alexander, misled by the answers of some 
of our captive officers who had been taken prisoner, 
believed that the whole of Davout’s main body was 
before Holitch, waiting to make an end of him. The 
fact is that this marshal, who had been summoned 
rather late in the day from Vienna, had nothing but 
a harassed and half mutilated division to oppose on 
this point to the remainder of the defeated troops of 
the two Emperors. Napoleon knew the weakness 
of his right wing; he surmised that the Archduke 
Ferdinand was behind at the head of 20,000 men, 
who had obtained a victory over the Bavarians; he 
learnt that the Archduke Charles, with his army of 
Italy had just arrived on the Danube; and that elsewhere 
the coalition was master at the same time of Naples 


260 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


and Hanover. These considerations decided him on 
ending the war. 

Having arrived at this decision, the next day, (De- 
cember 4) began with a suspension of arms. About 
ten o’clock we were on horseback around Napoleon, 
galloping forwards on the road to Hungary. Having 
quickly reached an eminence beyond Urchutz, he 
drew rein there. A valley lay at our feet, and a road 
across the pools of Saruschitz approached by a mill. 
The French Imperial Guard with flying standards and 
scarlet plumes at their heads, in full review panoply, 
crowned on our side the elevated ridge of this 
valley where the war was to come to an end. The 
remains of the Austrian forces lined the opposite slope. 
The Emperor ordered me to go down into this hollow, 
and at about one hundred and fifty paces from the ponds 
and the manufactory to have a fire lighted by the chas- 
seurs of his escort. A tree that the Russians had cut 
down the day before seemed to mark out a fitting spot, 
about ten paces to the left of the high road; and it 
was here I established the celebrated bivouac where 
the interview of the two Emperors was to take place. 
The fire was burning up as Napoleon put foot to the 
ground, several of his chasseurs were trying who could 
best make him a carpet of straw, others were securing 
a plank upon the tree trunk, so that the two Emperors 
might be able to take their seats there, when, smiling 
at all this trouble he said to me: “ There, there; that 
“will do; but it took no less than six months to settle 
“the ceremonial for the interview of Francis I. and 
“Charles the Fifth!” 

At this instant we perceived coming from Czeitch 
and issuing out into the road-way a single carriage 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 261 


without an escort. Two squadrons accompanied it, but 
they had not gone beyond the ponds which defined 
the line of the armistice. This carriage stopped on the 
roadway in front of the fire, and the Emperor Napoleon 
came up to the step to receive the Emperor of Austria 
with affectionate consideration, taking him by the hand 
to lead him to his bivouac. There was barely a trace 
of anxiety visible in this Emperor’s listless aspect. As 
he descended from his carriage he seemed not to have 
perceived an impulsive movement of Napoleon, who I 
thought was about to embrace him, but who contained 
himself as if suddenly frozen at so solemn a moment 
by the cold and inexpressive gaze of this monarch. 
I could not even detect in the eyes of Francis IL. a 
single glance of curiosity, which would only have been 
natural in a first interview with so great a man! 

His first words, however, were befitting. “He hoped,” 
he said, “that the Emperor would appreciate the step 
“he was taking to accelerate the general peace.” Adding 
immediately, with a singular and somewhat forced 
laugh: “Well! you intend to despoil me, to deprive 
“me of my States?” To an observation of Napoleon, he 
answered, “The English! they are salesmen of human 
“flesh.” We did not hear the rest, having remained 
on the road, with the Austrian officers, about ten paces 
from the two monarchs and the Prince of Lichtenstein, 
who alone had been included in this conference. It 
was easy to see that Lichtenstein bore the principal 
part in the discussion. 

The interview took place standing, and lasted an 
hour. We then thought we heard Francis II. exclaim: 
“Well, then, the matter is settled! I was only free this 
“morning. I told the Emperor of Russia that I was 


262 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“anxious to see you; and he replied that I could do 
“as I pleased.” We were surprised to hear this prince 
laugh outright several times in the course of his com- 
plaints concerning the plundering by some Cossacks 
of a farm which he seemed to hold in special affection. 
We may not rightly have heard what he said, but it 
caused us a painful feeling, that this monarch in the 
midst of the misfortunes of his empire should seem 
taken up with such an unimportant detail. The last 
words of Napoleon were “So I have Your Majesty’s 
“promise not to begin the war again?” Francis IL. 
replied: “ That he swore it and would keep his word”, 
upon which the two Emperors embraced each other 
and parted. 

While mounting his horse, Napoleon said to us: 
“We are going to see Paris again, peace is settled!” 
But during his return to Austerlitz, after having des- 
patched Savary back to the two Emperors, he seemed 
anxious and preoccupied with what had just taken 
place, letting fall Some expressions full of bitterness ; 
to which he added: “ That it was impossible to believe 
“in these promises. He had just received a lesson 
“which he should not forget; and in the future he 
“would always have 400,000 men under arms!” 

I am ignorant of the opinion that Napoleon conceived 
of Francis II., but it must be admitted, this prince 
possessed the respect of his subjects, who credited him 
with an enlightened mind and firm character; he 
was beloved by them; and I may even add that those 
of us who had known him, did not share the unfavourable 
opinion which this interview, no doubt a painful and © 
embarrassing one, had left upon us. 

About two o’clock, Napoleon was back again at 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 263 


Austerlitz. It was then that while giving thanks to 
God and his army, he commanded that thanksgiving 
services should be held in all the churches of the 
Empire. The previous evening he had dictated in one 
breath, and under the influence of one of his most 
eloquent inspirations, the famous proclamation which 
began: “Soldiers, I am satisfied with you!” During 
the days that succeeded, the warmth of this feeling 
was ever present in his looks, his words, his bulletins, 
and in the generosity of the repeated decrees in which 
he desired to place on record his gratitude for the 
devotion of so many brave men. 

The army on its side, proud of him, of itself, and of 
the victory which it had designated: ‘“ Lattle of the 
“Anniversary” ; “ Battle of the Coronation” ; “Battle of 
“the Three Emperors”, lavished upon him its love and 
enthusiasm. The greater part of the decrees, dated 
from Brunn, had been thought out at Austerlitz during | 
the four days that he remained there. According to 
one of these, the price of all the magazines that had 
fallen into our hands, and a hundred millions of war 
taxes were to be the reward of the victorious army. 
Another granted generous pensions to the widows of 
those who had just fallen. By a third all orphans 
were to be fed, clothed, brought up, married, and 
provided for at the expense of the State. Napoleon 
expressed a wish that they should have the right to 
add his own name to their baptismal ones. He had 
said more than this in unmeasured language the day 
after the battle, when his delight caused him to break 
out in these remarkable words:-—“ Soldiers! you have 
“won peace; you will once more see France! Give 
“my name to your children; you have my permission 


264 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


“to do so; and if amongst them there should be one 
“worthy of us, I will leave him all my worldly goods, 
“and declare him my successor! ” 

On December 5, the day after the interview, Savary 
was admitted at Holitch before daybreak to Alexander’s 
presence. Davout, then reinforced, had only a step 
to take to make an end of the vanquished in their 
disorder. But the night before he had received a note 
from the Czar, informing him of the armistice, which 
had put a stop to this. Savary promised the prince 
to suspend the marshal’s attack, making it a condition 
that the entire remainder of the Russian army should 
at once return to Russia by daily stages. He even 
dictated their itinerary, to which the Emperor Alexander 
assented without hesitation. 

On December 6, the armistice which had been 
agreed upon the previous evening with Austria, was 
signed by Napoleon at Austerlitz. 


CHAPTER XIX, 
THE SIEGE OF GAETA. 


HE war was hardly over in Germany before the 

Emperor sent me into Italy, where fighting had 
begun for the conquest of the kingdom of Naples. 
The grand affair at this moment was the preparation 
for the siege of Gaéta or Gayette, the name of the 
nurse of Afneas, which General Gardanne, who did 
not trouble himself much about ancient history, mistook 
for a surname, pronouncing it cazllelte (gossip); this 
was, he said, the nickname of a nurse of former days, 
showing that they were exactly like those of the 
present day and proving, according to him, that gos- 
siping must have been their original sin from time 
immemorial. 

The traveller does not exist who has not described 
Gaéta as the key of Naples, though many have entered 
that capital without taking this fortress. It is a town 
built on a lofty rock at the end of a peninsula. The 
sea surrounds it, with the exception of one side, which 
is confined between two gulfs, forming a narrow isth- 
mus of some 4oo yards, which connects the town with 
the mainland, and offers to the assailant who should 
shape his course in this direction, (the only available 


one) a loose soil on a bed of rock. The much more 
265 


266 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


developed front of the town dominates it, and the right 
of this line of defence is bathed by the sea. On every 
other side it is steep, and covered with batteries raised 
one above the other, forming a redoubtable amphitheatre 
whence a hundred pieces of ordnance converge upon 
and command the isthmus, forbidding all approach to it. 

The rest of the kingdom seemed under subjection ; 
but it was impossible to expect its moral conquest, 
as long as the enemy possessed this centre of attack 
and revolt; all the more that throughout this long 
peninsula, which was nearly all coast, and within sight 
of the English, one found oneself as it were, at an 
advance post, in the very capital itself. It was there- 
fore necessary to strike this last blow; Massena 
insisted on it. However, before all was in readiness 
to come to extremities, an attempt was made to parley, 
but the first officer who was sent, received a charge 
of grape shot point blank and was killed on the 
spot. On the one hand it was said there had been 
some mistake; on the other, an inopportune recollec- 
tion of my successful efforts in Ulm caused me to be 
selected to renew the attempt. I obeyed, but with the 
conviction of its futility, feeling much annoyed to be 
the means of giving the Prince of Hesse a further 
opportunity of braving our arms. 

When, issuing from the outskirts, I appeared on the 
esplanade, the garrison, somewhat ashamed of having 
opened fire with all its batteries on a solitary man, 
allowed me to come up to the wicket which was 
opened; and in a kind of redan, I found the prince 
im the “midst sofa. circles of officers, ) Her hadtonlly 
agreed to listen to me out of doors, surrounded by 
his Council. Whatever one does against the grain is 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 267 


badly done. I felt that I was the bearer of an absurd 
proposition, ridiculous as far as concerned ourselves, 
and offensive for the governor of one of the most 
strongly fortified places in Europe, protected and vic- 
tualled by a squadron which was mistress of the seas, 
and whose steady courage was well known. He was 
if I remember right, a little, thick-set man with an 
aquiline nose, whose grog-blossoms bore equal testi- 
mony to his prowess at table as well as in the breach. 
Fearing himself even more than he feared us, he had 
conceived the original idea of entrusting the key of 
his wine cellar to the Bishop of the town, exacting a 
promise from this prelate only to allow him a bottle 
a day. He had also been heard shouting himself 
hoarse, and repeatedly calling out from the top of the 
ramparts through a speaking trumpet: “Gaéta is not 
“Ulm; neither is Hesse a Marshal Mack!” I knew 
this very weli; indeed we only exchanged a few 
words, which were rather confused on my side and 
ironical on his; upon which to cut short the sorry mis- 
sion which had been entrusted to me, I concluded 
abruptly and took myself off, carrying away an indif- 
ferent opinion, not as to the determined character but 
the graciousness of our adversary, and leaving him 
probably with an equally poor opinion of my eloquence. 

He was wrong on two points; first, by leaving 
standing an outskirt of the town a few paces from 
the fort, whose solidly built houses made our approach 
the easier; secondly, his sallies were not sufficiently 
frequent: he seldom ventured on any, that of May 
15th, in which we lost a captain of engineers and 
a hundred soldiers not having given him sufficient 
courage to persevere. 


268 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


These engagements had been intermixed with par- 
leyings, during one of which the governor who had 
a pleasant humour, said to Gardanne, one of the 
besieging generals: “ That he thought his abode was 
“unhealthy, and that he advised him to change it.”— 
“Unhealthy!” answered Gardanne, “it is an admirable 
“situation! ”—“It is,” retorted the Prince, “that very 
“situation which makes it unhealthy!” Gardanne, whose 
intelligence was not of a very high order, and who 
thought that the air was excellent, would not agree 
to this remark of the prince. He had taken no 
steps in consequence of this warning, when the follow- 
ing night a deluge of bombs made him quickly under- 
stand its aim and meaning, rousing him hurriedly 
from his sleep, and barely leaving him time to go and 
seek a more salubrious domicile. 

Mine was in the Royal quarters, situated between 
Mola, the ancient Formies, the country of the Lestrigons, 
and the fortress. This house was on the edge of the 
gulf, close to the road where Cicero, overtaken in 
his litter by Popilius, Lenas, and Herennius, perished 
under their blows. A ruin close by, which we had 
turned into a powder magazine, was reported to be 
his tomb. These royal quarters were so much exposed 
to the fire of the Anglo-Sicilian flotilla that one night 
one of their cannon-balls grazed the bolster on which 
my head was lying, and lodged itself, about a foot above, 
in the wall against which my bed had been placed. 
The sea bathed the garden of this quarter, which was 
defended by one of our batteries. I remember that 
from this redoubt and in the course of one of the 
attacks I could perceive under the waves the remains 
of some old buildings. After the combat was over, 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 269 


I returned to the ruins with the cicerone of the 
spot, who gave them out to be those of the baths 
and lecture room of the great orator whose name 
they had usurped, in the pride of a more than doubtful 
discovery. 

That very day a spy in the pay of both parties 
proposed to us to poison the prince of Hesse. He 
was a Neapolitan priest. With a reminiscence of 
Roman history it was first suggested that he should 
be sent back into Gaéta, bound hand and foot, to 
the governor. He was, however, despatched to Naples, 
where with less of Roman austerity, it was con- 
sidered sufficient to treat the wretch with contempt 
and send him out of the country. 

We had to contend against the garrison of 8,000 
men, seconded by a squadron of four vessels, four 
Iinglish frigates and thirty gunboats. The besiegers 
were more numerous than the besieged; that fact and the 
accidents of the locality made the approaches dangerous. 
By the correct aim of their cannon and small arms we 
recognised the skill of their English bombardiers 
and sharpshooters. Always sure of stores by sea, 
they so little spared their ammunition that since the 
commencement of the entrenchments without counting 
fire-pots, grape shot, etc, they sent us more than 
130,000 cannon-balls and bomb shells. Frequently have 
I seen the latter aimed at some special individual 
amongst us, resting for a moment on the breastwork, 
fall about three feet only from its aim. In the third 
parallel if one showed one’s head for a moment, 
twenty fire-balls would immediately hover over the 
crest, lodging themselves in the sand bag which 
crowned it and protected us, punishing our curiosity 


270 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


or warning us of our imprudence. Thus, although 
we only confessed to half the number, we really lost 
2,000 men, killed or disabled in this siege. 

It is quite true that on our side, use, vanity, and 
ennui had rendered us foolhardy. A battalion of blacks 
made itself very conspicuous, though from quite another 
motive. These negroes would follow through the air 
with greedy glances the enemy’s bombs, for which 
they were paid sixpence; reaching them as they fell, 
they would dash upon them and draw out the burning 
fuse unless its premature explosion happened to kill 
them during this dangerous and not too lucrative sport. 

Masséna however, well seconded by Dumas, by the 
whole of the engineers, and by the artillery generals 
second in command, had converted the blockade into 
a veritable siege. In order to move under cover and 
defile upon this isthmus, formed of rock covered with 
a thin layer of sand, where it was impossible to dig 
out trenches, it was necessary to bring up the material 
to form them of heaps of fascines and _ sandbags. 
Nevertheless when on June 14th, General Vallongue 
of the Engineers was killed, we were about two 
hundred yards from the place. At the end of the same 
month we were only one hundred feet from it; the 
breaching batteries being ready, they were armed. It 
was eleven o’clock at night on July 7th when in the 
midst of the profound silence of a beautiful night, at a 
signal from King Joseph, the simultaneous firing of our 
twenty-three mortars and our fifty 24 and 33 pounders, 
began to batter the fortress. For a moment it was 
struck dumb, but its hundred pieces of ordnance soon 
answered us. Imagine, if possible, these simultaneous 
and repeated formidable detonations, and worse still, the 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 27 


hiss and roar of these enormous projectiles, thrown from 
both sides, crossing each other and whirling through the 
air with infernal fury. Nothing can equal the sublime 
horror of such a spectacle. But it astonishes, never- 
theless; such a disturbance of nature by the hand of 
man seems like a usurpation of the power of heaven, 
exceeding the latitude which is allowed to our pas- 
sions. 

The parapets and embrasures of the ramparts of 
Gaéta were overthrown by it. A great part of its 
guns were dismounted; three of its gunpowder and 
bomb magazines were blown up, and soon dumb 
from impotence as much as consternation, a long 
silence alone replied to our attack. But the next 
day the courageous governor with the aid of the 
English, restored order to his ruins and reorganized 
his defence, which he kept up with a constancy 
worthy of a better fate until July roth, when, struck by 
the splinter of a shell, he was carried, dying, out of 
the place. 

On July 12th two breaches began to be formed. 
On the 16th, under the breaching battery on our left, 
vigorously commanded by Clermont-Tonnerre, the 
falling-in of the enemy’s works which protected the 
citadel, appeared vulnerable. This breach was acces- 
sible by the sea which was only about eighteen inches 
deep there; but the slope of the second breach more 
in the centre, made in a three-tier bastion, was 
incomplete. However, impatient to get on, we de- 
manded permission to attack it, and as Chamberlhiac, 
the second general in command of the engineers, very 
properly refused, we persisted, pointing out to him 
where it had fallen in, saying: “There are crosses of 


D7) es MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


honour there!” But he, endeavouring to calm us, only 
replied: “Yes, yes; I see plenty of crosses there—no 
“lack of them, but they are wooden crosses. Listen 
“to me, and let us wait forty-eight hours.” 

Indeed, on July 18th, at the end of the second 
day, just as he had predicted, as we had feared, and 
as Masséna had hoped, the two breaches being practica- 
ble and the assault ordered, Gaéta capitulated. "We 
entered it by the breach made by Clermont-Tonnerre. 
The terms of capitulation were that the armed garrison 
should defile before us, and embark for Sicily; but as 
it was not forbidden to tamper with the troops, who 
easily lent themselves to our enticements, by gestures 
accompanied with money and promises, we were able 
to draw away a part of them. A fair number thus 
passed over to the victorious side, in the ranks of King 
Joseph’s army. 

This siege must remain famous. It had cost us five 
months’ blockade, four months of open trenches, eleven 
days’ fire, and 2,000 men, of whom eight hundred 
privates and twenty-nine officers were killed or wounded, 
and from 1,100 to 1,200 lay sick or dead in the hospitals. 
We had fired 68,000 rounds of artillery, burnt 380,000 
cartridges, made use of 171,000 sand-bags, 9,000 ga- 
bions, 32,000 fascines or bundles of fascines, and spent 
altogether nearly seven millions of francs! 


CLAP Hikes 2k 6. 
JENA. 


S for me, having been sent to act as aide-de-camp 

to King Joseph during the conquest of his king- 
dom, when Gaéta was taken, I had nothing further to 
do in Naples. 

I obtained leave to join Napoleon in Paris again 
and to resume my post in his service. He received me 
with a kindly and even paternal welcome, of which I 
quote the last words only, because they prove that at 
that time the Emperor was very far from believing in 
the aggression of the King of Prussia aided by Russia, 
which was really so near. 

“Take a holiday and get married,” he said, “there 
“is a time for everything, and there is no question of 
“war just now.” 

Only six weeks later, however, I left for Germany 
aS a married man, and went on without a break from 
the campaigns of the coast, of Ulm, of Austerlitz, and 
of Naples to those of Prussia and of Poland. 

The Emperor left Mayence and crossed the Rhine, 
October 3rd, 1806. His time was mainly occupied at 
Wurtzburg up to October 5th, in giving marching 
orders to his troops, receiving the homage of the 
Rhine princes, conferring with the Archduke Ferdinand, 


20 273 


274 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


and a vain attempt at friendly relations with Austria; 
in settling the projected marriage of his _ brother 
Jérome with the daughter of the King of Wurtemburg, 
and denouncing the violent threats of Prussia against 
this new monarch, which greatly aggravated Napoleon’s 
anger against Frederic and the Prince of Brunswick. 
On the date above mentioned I rejoined him in Paris 
where he had given me permission to remain till then. 

One hundred and sixty thousand Prussians and 
Saxons had assembled, leaving the Rhine in the rear 
of their left wing. This magnificent young army was 
led by its beautiful queen on horseback, its princes, 
its king, and its ministers, all of whom were giving 
orders or advice; and lastly, by the old generals of 
the Great Frederic who were growing young again in 
the universal enthusiasm. This was manifested noisily, 
like a long restrained passion released from its bonds. 
One of these corps, detached and weak as to numbers, 
alone flanked its left, and leisurely watched Hoff and 
Franconia, whilst its masses accumulating around 
Erfurt, Gotha, and Weimar, already showed their 
advance-guards at Saalfeldt and even in the direction 
of Fuld, threatening the Main. They meant to attack, 
fancying that they would be able to surprise our army 
of 200,000 men, spread over its cantonments between 
the Rhine and the Danube. 

However, before risking themselves further, they 
deliberated. The King and Luchesini alone still hoped 
for peace. The others—generals, ministers, princes, and 
especially the queen—were striving in emulation of one 
another to push on the war violently; as for any plan, 
they did try to originate one, but were unable to 
agree. Their unruly council at Erfurt lasted from the 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 275 


5th to the 7th or 8th of October. A project of general 
recognizance over their left flank, and an insolent 
injunction to the Emperor at once to evacuate Germany, 
brought it to an end. 

Whilst they were uttering their war-cry, and negli- 
gently leaving the Saal on their left, with no thought 
but that of throwing us back across the Main upon 
the Rhine itself, the whole of the Grand Army was 
already in motion under the eyes of its Emperor, si- 
lently leaving our frontier river to itself, having quitted 
its cantonments of Franconia and the Danube. It 
advanced in three columns from south to north-east, 
that on our left, by itself, was to meet their advance- 
guard at Saalfeldt; whilst, unlike the Prussian army 
which had remounted and then left the Saal behind it 
on the left, Napoleon and his two other columns, 
moving rapidly between this river and the Elster, 
were descending it on the right bank in order to cross 
it suddenly between Jena and Naumburg, taking 
Frederic in the rear and on his left flank, interposing 
between him and the Elbe, and cutting him off from 
his magazines, his capital, and his retreat. 

Our strategic march started from Coburg, Cronach 
and Hoff on October 8th. Five days after, on the 
13th, the right bank of the Saal completely cleared 
was reached between Saalfeldt and Naumburg. The 
Prussian corps of observation was thrown back 
beyond Jena with the loss of a thousand men and 
its baggage. It had only taken part in an insignificant 
engagement, at Schleitz on October gth; but on October 
1oth, before our left at Saalfeldt, Prince Louis of Prussia, 
the flower of the enemy’s army by the beauty of 
his heroic form, his brilliant intellect, his chivalrous 


276 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


and daring valour, allowed himself to be overpowered 
by Lannes and Suchet, and was killed by one of our 
non-commissioned officers. Struck down in the mélée 
of a desperate charge, he refused to surrender, and 
was run through by a sabre. He was left dead on 
our hands with 3,000 men, twenty-three guns, their 
carriages and all the baggage. Both armies lamented 
his death: Napoleon being so moved by it, that on 
October 12th he wrote to the King to express his 
sorrow at such a cruel loss, and to propose a peace. 

However, on this very day of October 12th, Marshal 
Lannes, who had at first been called to Alma and 
Géra where the enemy had expected a battle, had 
drawn near to the Saal; his advance-guard having 
descended it as far as Jena which our infantry had entered. 
With the warlike instinct which they all possess, their 
position in this town was causing them some anxiety. 
As a matter of fact it was dominated by the left bank 
which was probably occupied by the enemy, for 
which reason several amongst them to make sure, 
before nightfall climbed up the slope; on reaching the 
top, what was then their surprise, instead of the mere 
post whose vicinity they had suspected, to perceive 
the Prussian army drawn up in three lines in order 
of battle. 

The next day, October 13th, Marshal Lannes, 
informed by them, himself verified their report, and 
taking possession of this dangerous defile which 
was not very warmly contested, he summoned the 
Emperor there. Napoleon was then at Gera and his 
marching orders, to judge by those which he had 
given me, still tended towards Naumburg, but changing 
his mind at this news, he called up Soult, Augereau, 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. Ze, 


and Ney; made Murat retrace his steps, and led them 
all upon Jena, where he himself, having rejoined Lannes 
and preceding his guard, arrived two hours before night- 
fall. He at once decided to offer battle beyond this 
town. Bernadotte and Davout, who were already 
near Naumburg, received orders to take the enemy's 
army on the left flank, whilst the Emperor, dashing 
out of Jena the same day, should attack it in front. 
Whilst the Prussian army was reckoning on striking 
awe into Napoleon by the authority of its science and 
its manceuvres, the corps of the advance-guard which 
flanked its left wing, and which it believed to be 
beyond reach of harm, had been surprised, beaten, and 
discouraged. The remainder had been seized with a 
panic of terror near Jena: on October 12th, on the 
false rumours of our appearance, they were seen 
flying through the town in disorder, throwing down 
their arms. The Saxon corps, already crippled, seeing 
itself cut off from its country, began to murmur; it 
thought it had been sacrificed, and threatened to desert 
the common cause. At such unexpected news, there 
was no longer a question of the forward march upon 
the Rhine or even the Main, in the frequent councils 
held at Prussian headquarters. They stopped short, 
they deliberated; they perceived that according to his 
habit, Napoleon had taken up his position in the most 
central point of his manceuvre, whence he himself 
superintended the rapid and simultaneous execution of the 
movement which he had solely conceived and planned; 
they then understood that pivoting in this manner, 
with his right in advance beyond the left wing of his 
adversary he had turned it, gaining for his own side 
the advantage of numbers, time, and that of attack. 


278 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


On October 13th, at the very moment when Na- 
poleon was arranging everything so as to debouch 
the next morning at daybreak from Jena upon Weimar, 
the King and his 70,000 men, as if they had wished 
to leave the field clear to our Emperor, withdrew 
themselves from this plain. They departed marching to 
the left, summoning Ruchel and their right from Erfurt 
to follow them, and directing their course by way of 
Eckartsberg and Auersteedt, upon Friburg and Naum- 
burg. Their object was to precede us, not knowing 
that we were already there in full force; so that, by 
way of precaution and to cover their march, they left 
before Jena, only the Prince of Hohenlohe with his 
40,000 men. 

Napoleon, on his side, had on October 13th, as we 
have already seen, hurried up from Gera to Jena in 
advance of his troops and his guard, where he found 
Marshal Lannes already master, by his advance-guard, 
of the slope of the opposite heights crowned by the 
enemy. The Emperor and the Marshal, under the 
fire of the sharpshooters, pushed onwards from one 
bit of uneven ground to another, trying to reach some 
elevation whence they could make a recognizance of 
the ground to be conquered on the morrow. When 
night came on, he made the whole of Marshal Lannes’ 
corps ascend the slope in perfect silence, these 20,000 
men faking up their positions, line upon line, on this 
dangerous incline. Napoleon pitched his camp behind 
them. When the guard came up, he himself arranged 
their battalions in the rear of those of Lannes; and 
from their strengthened ranks, swelled the whole body 
to 25,000 men. Thus it remained all night, as it were 
fastened and suspended to the flank of this steep 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 279 


declivity. Its approaches, on leaving Jena are so diffi- 
cult that certain works had to be carried out on the 
rising river bank to the left of the high road, to reduce 
the slope. The Emperor worked so hard that night 
to accumulate his means of attack on this ascent 
that at ten o’clock I saw him myself, candle in hand, 
holding a light to his artillerymen, encouraging them, 
and personally helping them to heave up their guns 
by the aid of ropes and main force, on the precipi- 
tous bank, before he went to take up his position 
with his guard. 

Having seen after this, and given the order to Ber- 
nadotte, renewing it to Davout, to debouch from Kosen 
to Appolda on the king’s flank, believing him to be 
opposite, he then betook himself almost alone to the 
heights beyond our advance posts. He was impatient 
to judge by what first movement on the morrow, 
he would be able suddenly to push forwards the 
mass which he was holding in hand, to make it 
emerge from this ambuscade with the last shades of 
night, and thus surprise his adversary, gaining enough 
ground to extend himself and engage battle. 

During this last hazardous recognizance he got so 
far out of our lines, that on coming back, one of our 
outposts, knowing that the Prussians were only a little 
distance off, took him for one and fired upon him! 

The remainder of the night passed quietly. Napoleon 
had reached his tent about midnight, and slept soundly. 
Our position, however, was such a perilous one that 
it was whispered amongst us that the enemy could 
have thrown a cannon ball by hand which would 
have passed through our entire ranks. So true was 
this that the first cannon shot the next day went 


280 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


over our heads, and killed a cook at his canteen quite 
a long way behind us! 

The next day, October 14th, Marshals Lannes and 
Soult came to take their orders before five o’clock in the 
morning. The Emperor had just dictated them for the 
battle. There was no other course open than to attack 
in front, at dawn, with a view to gain enough ground 
to spread out about 40,000 men in two lines, for that 
was the only number Napoleon had at his disposition 
before midday. After which, counsel could be taken 
as to the locality which we only knew by the map, 
and the movements of the enemy whom we believed 
to be in force. Nevertheless, as a success on the left 
of this army would endanger the retreat of the whole 
of the remainder, and as Davout and _ Bernadotte 
were expected by that side, the village which had 
been noticed the night before, to the front of 
our right was fixed upon for our first attempt. Mar- 
shal Lannes with Suchet’s division at the head, was 
to begin. 

Towards five o’clock, Napoleon, who had remained 
alone with Marshal Soult, was saying to him:-—“ Shall 
we beat them?”—“ Yes; if they are there,” answered 
the Marshal, “but I fear they may not be!” Just then, 
the first musketry reports were heard, when the 
Emperor gaily exclaimed: “There they are! The affair 
“is beginning!” and immediately proceeded to harangue 
the infantry, and to excite its emulation against the 
celebrated Prussian cavalry, “which you must,” he 
said, “destroy before our squares, as at Austerlitz, we 
“crushed the Russian infantry.” 

Up to eight o’clock, a bitterly cold and heavy 
fog prevailing, our sharpshooters could only grope 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 281 


their way, guided alone by the sound and light of 
the firing which answered their attack. They still 
advanced, but at haphazard, deviating to the left, in 
which they were followed by the battalions that came 
after them, until those of the 17th inadvertently ran 
up against the enemy’s advance-guard, near Clozwitz. 
This line drawn up against a wood was steadily 
awaiting us; it was ready first, and at such close 
quarters it managed to disable a fair number of our 
men. But the fight soon became equal. It lasted 
nearly an hour, and was at the same time sanguinary 
and indecisive, consisting of a mere exchange of shots, 
the prevailing darkness hiding everything from sight, 
and preventing any manceuvre. 

But at nine o’clock, the freezing cloud which envel- 
oped us, dispersed. Suchet immediately rushing on 
the nearest Prussian corps, which was in disarray, 
took it by surprise, overthrew it, and forced it back 
into the plain with a loss of twenty-two guns. <A few 
minutes after, about ten o’clock, Marshal Soult appeared 
with Saint-Hilaire’s division, which interposed itself 
between this part of the enemy’s centre, already 
repulsed, and their left wing, which it drove aside 
and pursued off the battle-field. The cavalry of this 
wing was strong; its repeated attacks failed against 
the bayonets of the roth light infantry, and when in 
its turn charged and defeated by Soult’s squadrons, it 
lost heart. 

This first double effort proved decisive. Soult had 
withdrawn his left wing from Hohenlohe; Suchet had 
left behind him a clear field for our columns. Both 
were already setting up our line of battle, with the 
right in advance, which obliged Hohenlohe to fight 


282 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


beyond his natural retreat. The sound of the firing 
had aroused this general in his singularly eccentric 
quarters at Kapellendorf. He had at first taken no 
notice, believing that there was nothing more than 
skirmishing on that side, and expecting the enemy on 
the right, when we had already overthrown his left. 
The two opposing chiefs were each under different 
misapprehensions: Napoleon thinking he was attacking 
Frederic’s entire army, and Hohenlohe fancying that 
he had only to repulse an attack of the advance posts. 

The latter, in spite of the first noise of the combat, 
and of reiterated warnings, refused to believe in a 
battle. He was only busying himself about forwarding 
to his Sovereign the Emperor’s proposition of peace. 
His persistence in the inaction to which he had devoted 
this day, lasted till about nine o’clock. At last, finding 
out his mistake, and forced by our aggression, he 
made haste to leave to the Saxons the defence of his 
right; to recall, against our right flank, his left wing 
which could no longer hear it; to summon Ruchel 
and his corps, then at Weimar, to take part in a victory 
which he seemed to consider a certainty; and to hasten 
with his centre to encounter our attack at Heiligen. 
He had time for this; because the Emperor, still imagin- 
ing the King was in front of him, waited two hours 
for the arrival of his reinforcements. But Ney, hasten- 
ing up too impetuously on Heiligen, and not closely 
enough followed, hurried everything! 

It was here that the most determined effort was 
made. It was short but sharp, and the only moment 
of uncertainty was when Ney’s first hasty move- 
ment was repulsed at several intervals, from the village 
in dispute, while waiting for Durosnel’s cavalry and 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 283 


Marshal Lannes’ left to strengthen it. The engagement 
which had begun about six o’clock, lasted ten hours; 
but this was because the first third of the time was 
wasted in the fog; the second sufficed in the first 
instance to rout the advance-guard and the left wing, 
and after arrival of the reinforcements, the centre. 
During the last three hours Hohenlohe was defeated, 
and the conquest was effected of Ruchel’s corps of 
about 15,000 men who had come up at the rear of 
their vanquished centre to take its place, and be destroyed 
in their turn; after which the Saxon left wing, deserted 
and surrounded, laid down their arms. 

It was one victory after another in succession against 
an enemy taken by surprise, and fighting without 
concert, who was first cut off from his left, and being 
more and more outflanked on the left, found himself 
turned as well as defeated in front. Both forces were 
equal. Ours would have been almost double, but for 
the fact that our rear columns had such a distance to 
traverse through encumbered defiles before they could 
join us, that half of them either arrived too late, or 
rendered no service. Such were the facts in their 
entirety; here are a few of the details: 

About eleven o’clock when Hohenlohe appeared to 
contest Heiligen with us, his artillery having already 
begun their fire, the Emperor was at the head of his 
guard deployed on the plateau of Lutzebrode. One 
of Augereau’s divisions was advancing on its left, 
and that of Lannes on its right. Several times when 
the fighting grew hot on one side or the other, at the 
head of this reserve, he would himself bear now 
towards the right, then to the left of this lofty position. 
He remained there nearly the whole day; his glance 


284 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


taking in everything and commanding the whole 
plain. 

Marshal Ney whose main body was still beyond the 
defile of Jena, had just come up. He had brought 
along with him three thousand of his own men in double 
quick time. Colbert’s cavalry was following him. 
Carried away by his habitual eagerness, this marshal 
outdistanced Lannes’ divisions; and leaving us all 
behind, he dashed into the thick of the fight, at its 
hottest centre, Heiligen itself. Soon, however, forced 
by the murderous fire of the enemy to stop short, he 
sent his squadrons at them. Their charge at first 
arrested the firing, but it soon burst out afresh, Col- 
bert’s squadrons having in their turn been thrown 
back by the Prussian cavalry, almost upon the 
Emperor himself, who was for a moment surrounded 
by their routed mass. The sight of him, and his 
glance and gesture of dissatisfaction alone was able to 
check them: 

Whilst they rallied, the Emperor called up Durosnel 
with his two light cavalry regiments, ordering him to 
renew the charge. Then occurred a singular incident, 
although there have been other instances. One of this 
general’s regiments which had been first despatched, 
had by a memorable onrush overthrown on their 
way three lines of Prussian cavalry and artillery; it 
was itself almost swallowed up in their defeat, when 
Durosnel ordered his second regiment to charge in its 
turn, to protect the first, and finish its work. But 
the colonel of this corps, up to that moment an intre- 
pid warrior, hesitated; and although under the eyes 
of his men, his general, and the Emperor himself, he 
fell back into the ranks as if seized with a fit of 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 285 


vertigo, or under the influence of some fatal presenti- 
ment. Durosnel said that he seemed spell-bound, as 
if Death himself had suddenly appeared before him; 
and, in effect, he was killed by a cannon ball at that 
very moment. 

His general, however, had had time to lead his 
regiment on the enemy’s disordered battery, of which 
he remained master. At the same time Heiligen, which 
defined the centre of the battle, was carried by 
Marshal Ney, who an hour after in another rush 
supported by Augereau’s right, conquered the village 
of Issertoedt. 

The Emperor, then feeling sure of victory on the 
front and left, returned to concentrate his attention on 
the right of the plateau, to which he brought back 
his reserve. On this side and in front of him, Marshal 
Lannes was driving General Ruchel’s left on the 
road to Weimar, but numerous squadrons of formidable 
appearance were showing themselves on the horizon ; 
and seemed to be preparing to take this marshal on 
the right flank. When the Emperor perceived this 
cavalry, which he himself had called “celebrated,” 
he showed some anxiety; and, pointing it out to me, 
sent me to Suchet’s division with the order that they 
were to form up in squares against it. 

This order having been transmitted and executed, 
I thought it right to go and inform the marshal of it. 
At this moment another and last line of infantry of 
Ruchel’s, which had hastened up from Weimar, was 
checking him in front at about 200 paces distance 
and crushing him with its grape shot. Lannes then 
gave us a remarkable example of the accuracy of his 


r 


judgment. When I had informed him of the Emperor’s 


286 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


anxiety, and the orders he had given, he just threw a 
glance to his right, and upon this cavalry of which he 
did not seem to take any account. Two of his guns 
were firing on that side to keep it back; but pointing 
out to me the line of the enemy’s infantry, of much 
greater strength than our own, which was facing 
him, he ordered me to go and fetch these two pieces 
of artillery, and to place them in position on his left, 
on a mound which he indicated. “ After their second 
“discharge,” he said, “ you will see the whole of that 
“line of infantry and artillery beat a retreat.” 

I rather doubted this; but in spite of the enemy’s 
fire which was directed against us directly we appeared, 
and notwithstanding the constant habit of artillery- 
men to place themselves in position too soon and 
too far off, it only took ten minutes, after our second 
discharge, just as he had said, for the Prussian line to 
waver and fall back. 

He was, however, very nearly killed at that moment 
by a discharge of grape shot: he was pointing out 
to me their retrograde movement with some self-satis- 
faction, when a shot tore his uniform across the chest 
which it grazed, and his charger was so terrified that 
he threw himself upon mine, very nearly unhorsing 
me; but, without taking any notice of his wound, 
he still gazed after the enemy, exclaiming: “Look at 
“them, how they are all flying to Weimar! The road 
“is covered with their gun-carriages. Go at once to 
“inform the Emperor.” 

I found Napoleon still on the same plateau, but a 
little more to the left. It was about three o’clock ; 
while listening to me, several Saxon bullets, aimed 
directly at him, rebounded almost between my horse 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 287 


and his. He interrupted me to say: “ There is no good 
“in getting killed at the end of a victory; let us dis- 
“mount.” He ordered me to bring up the artillery of 
his guard to this point, after which I thought it 
desirable to repeat Marshal Lannes’ message to him. 
“Very well,” he said, “you may go, and follow their 
“retreat upon Weimar; but before doing so, just give 
“a look to our left front, and see what has become of 
“those Saxons, and let there be an end of them!” 

I rapidly crossed the plain which was covered with 
the defeated troops of Hohenlohe and Ruchel who were 
receiving the finishing stroke from Murat and our 
cavalry. Towards our left, Augereau was pushing 
the unfortunate Saxons on their front and flank, while 
one of Ney’s battalions, marching in a square, was 
beginning to outflank them on the right; I joined it 
at the moment when a last charge of Saxon hussars 
broke up in front of it who received its fire. 

A long and deep column of infantry, however, was 
advancing at the same pace as ourselves towards those 
batteries of position which had been firing on the 
Emperor. Its last ranks were so mixed up with 
our battalions that they seemed to be issuing from 
them. These were the Saxons. There were 8,000 of 
them; they were in full flight, but in an orderly mass, 
without a single sharpshooter on their flanks; and 
without particularly noticing them, thinking from their 
attitude and the course they were taking that they 
were our own men, I rushed up at breakneck speed 
to place myself at their head. It was only when 
within twenty paces of the first rank of this column 
that, on glancing at them, I perceived my mistake. 
Had I then called upon these poor Saxons to sur- 


288 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


render, in their desperate position I might perhaps 
have had the honour of being the first to make them 
lay down their arms; but as their bayonets were 
directed against me, in my surprise I did not think 
of it; I even doubted if I should have time to turn 
round; but going beyond their front I yet managed 
under their fire to return by the other flank to some 
of our own men who were well up, with whom I almost 
immediately broke through this unhappy column which 
threw down its arms. 

Murat got the glory of this; doing purposely what 
I had done unconsciously, in his chivalrous ardour, 
and quite alone, he had placed himself at their head 
the very moment after I had done so. When I came 
back myself through their disarmed ranks, I found 
him there with his sword sheathed, and only a cane 
in his hand, a smile on his face and his head held 
high, alone receiving as prisoners these thousands 
of men. 

The first part of my mission was now terminated; 
Weimar was the second. The whole plain was cleared 
when about four o’clock I arrived at the elevation by 
which a quick descent could be made to one of the 
bridges over the moats of the town. Letort was form- 
ing up his dragoons into a column to force the entrance, 
which was being defended by a battalion of the enemy ; 
but an impetuous charge through their fire rendered 
us masters of it. A few sword-thrusts had to be ex- 
changed, as an infantry waggon was across the bridge 
and the Prussian grenadiers had retrenched themselves 
behind it; but they had lost their heads. 

Whilst Letort was taking up a position beyond this 
town I went on to the Grand Duke’s palace, where 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 289 


Rapp and Murat soon joined me, and where the Grand 
Duchess had remained. The Queen of Prussia had 
only then left, and we were told that we had just 
missed capturing her. It was said that taken by sur- 
prise in Auersteedt that very morning, as well as the 
king, by the beginning of another battle, she had yielded 
to entreaties to withdraw to Weimar, and it was only 
on perceiving the fugitives flying before us that she 
decided to leave it. We had to content ourselves with 
the capture of this town, in which Goethe happened 
to be, from the wounded General Schmettau with the 
8oo prisoners that we made there. 

I was desirous of returning to the Emperor, but 
Murat detained me, asking me to wait for his report. 
It was late when he had drawn it up, having been 
hindered by his assiduous cares for the Grand Duch- 
ess, whilst Rapp and I were extinguishing a fire 
which had broken out near the palace. After a dinner 
of conquerors (though our satisfaction was restrained 
by the presence of the princess who insisted on doing 
the honours herself), I left Rapp and Murat only to 
arrive at midnight at Jena where Napoleon had retired 
after the battle. 

As far as I can remember, his quarters had been 
established in an inn, and the bed which he was 
occupying was one already there in the corner of a 
pretty large room. The Emperor was not in those 
days surrounded by all the comforts which later on 
made war less fatiguing for him, and possibly too 
easy. I entered alone, carrying a light, and drew near 
his bed. Almost immediately the dim light woke him 
up from a profound sleep; he never could bear any 
light at night, the smallest lamp or the faintest 


21 


290 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


glimmer prevented him from sleeping. As usual he 
woke up quietly, which is said to be a characteristic 
of happy temperaments, being wide awake at once 
without any surprise or agitation, which is also usual 
with soldiers. 

“As soon as he had read the report, I gave him an 
account of the taking of the Saxon corps which I 
estimated at 6,000 men. “I saw them,” he answered; 
“there were more, they were at least 8,000,” then 
when I added that we had nearly taken the queen, 
he answered in eager tones: “It would have served 
“her right, she well deserved it, it is she who is the 
“cause of the war.” He continued with a preoccupied 
air: “Did you not,” he said, “whilst marching upon 
“Weimar, hear heavy cannonading in the distance to 
“your right?” On my reply in the negative, when 
I said that it would have been difficult to distinguish 
the sound from that of our own, he added: “It is a 
“singular thing, there must have been a considerable 
“affair on that side ?” 

As a matter of fact, two hours later, one of Da- 
vout’s officers named Bourck aroused him again. He 
came to inform him of the victory of Auerstaedt; a 
victory quite distinct from that of Jena, although simul- 
taneous; for eight or ten hours after it was over the 
Emperor was still ignorant of this, and was making 
inquiries about it, not even having heard any of the 
firing. It should not cause any astonishment that in 
his next day’s bulletin he chose to confound this vic- 
tory with his own. It was at Auersteedt that the pick of 
the Prussian forces, with their most renowned generals, 
their princes, and even their king, although three times 
more numerous than ourselves, had been overwhelmed 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 2gI 


by the Emperor’s lieutenant; whilst at Jena the Emperor 
although as strong as the enemy, had only conquered 
two subordinates whom he had surprised when separated 
from the others. The glory was too disproportionate 
for him to let it go forth to the world, living on fame 
as he did. It will be seen that when less actuated 
by policy, he was more honest in his speech, and 
more just in his praise and gratitude. 

He might, however, have attributed the success of 
these two battles to his first and great manceuvre which 
had surprised the enemy on his flank and threatened 
his retreat. This manceuvre, while suddenly upsetting 
his adversary’s plans, had thrown the latter, who had 
to move such large masses, into the uncertainty and 
trouble of the unforeseen, and the disorder of counter- 
orders and of counter-movements in which union is 
lost, time wasted, and nothing done at the proper 
moment; whilst on our side, everything being concerted 
beforehand, the advantage of numbers, time, and attack, 
all, in fact, was entirely in our favour. 

As for the great Saxon column which we had taken 
prisoner, I then learnt that it had been sent to the 
Emperor. It had defiled before him whilst he was 
lying on the ground with his maps spread out, 
pointing out to Berthier those bold movements which 
had followed up his victory. He was so overcome 
with fatigue that in the midst of his work he fell 
asleep. His grenadiers, perceiving this, on a sign from 
Marshal Lefebvre, silently formed themselves into a 
square around him, thus guarding their Emperor’s 
repose on the plateau whence he had enabled them to 
enjoy such a glorious spectacle ! 

But the order of events must now take me back 


292 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


to that moment of the following night (October 14th to 
15th) when a second time aroused at Jena after my 
report, Napoleon received that of Davout with the 
news of the victory of Auersteedt. 

On this side, on the night of the 13th, the head- 
quarters of the two opposing armies, that’ of Davout 
with 25,000 men, and that of the king with 70,000, 
were, the one at Naumburg, the other at Auerstzedt. 
They were separated by a defile of about two leagues; 
Brunswick was close to it, he had only to take a step 
further on level ground to seize it. Davout was separated 
from it by the Saal and the whole length of the 
defile ; but instead of sleeping during the night of the 
13th to the 14th, he had pushed on Gudin and his 
division, whilst Brunswick had put off till the next 
morning the duty of throwing Schmettau and his 
advance-guard into it. 

It thus resulted that in the midst of the fog of the 
three first hours of October 14th, when this Prussian 
advance-guard drew near to Hassenhausen, it ran against 
Gudin, who took its guns and repulsed it as well as 
Blucher and his squadrons. 

Then the astonished chiefs held council in the Prus- 
sian camp. Brunswick was for deploying the army, 
and waiting till the enemy was better reconnoitred ; 
Mollendorf held quite a different opinion, he thought 
that the attack should be recommenced at once, which 
opinion was approved by Frederic; while Blucher 
again sent off and this time completely defeated, fled 
to the left towards Eckartsberg. 

But behind him, three divisions of Prussian infantry . 
were advancing. They opened out under our fire with 
the methodical slowness and scrupulous regularity of their 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 293 


manceuvres on parade. This orderly attack of 25,000 
Prussians under a hail of bullets and grape shot gave 
way against Gudin’s 7,000 men whose right had been 
just then supported by Friant’s division. Our sharp- 
shooters were especially brought into notice, and it 
was remarked with what warlike experience they 
made use of every advantage of the unequal ground. 
By a strange fatality, amongst the four chiefs of the 
enemy who took part in this second effort, two of 
them, Schmettau and Brunswick, were mortally wounded, 
and a third was unhorsed. 

The King, however, persisted; holding out against 
his bad luck. His general-in-chief and _ his lieutenants 
were beaten, and his astonished infantry stopped 
short; he called to his aid the pick of his cavalry 
under Prince William. This time, Gudin who had 
conquered, but who was himself half destroyed, was 
on the point of succumbing, when Morand’s division, 
led by Davout, hastened up to his left, forming its 
squares, and repulsed Frederic’s third attempt. The 
vain and repeated charges of this renowned cavalry 
gave way under the cross fire of Morand and before 
his bayonets. By a similar fatality, the King himself 
was unhorsed on this occasion, and Prince William 
was carried off wounded from the field of battle. 

Davout immediately rendered himself impregnable 
by crowning the Sonnenberg with infantry and artil- 
lery. Being as ardent in attack as he was obstinate 
in defence, whilst making sure of the conquered 
territory, he threw forward on Rehausen his two vic- 
torious divisions. 

On his side, for the fourth time, the King already 
reduced to his reserves met attack with attack. But 


294 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


from the commanding position which he had just taken 
up on his left, Davout with his artillery was blazing 
away upon the right flank of the enemy; Friant was 
doing the same upon the left, so that Gudin and 
Morand were able by a front attack to defeat this last 
effort of Frederic. There again by a fatality which 
was always against the Prussians, a mortal blow struck 
down their old and celebrated Mollendorf. 

Frederic then stopped. Rehausen had just been torn 
from him; all his corps were beaten, disheartened, and 
in disorder; his two brothers and the greater part of 
his lieutenants were killed or wounded; his cavalry 
was flying to right and left; it was five o’clock in 
the evening, and the unhappy king, driven back into 
his headquarters of the previous night, resigned himself 
to his fate. Whilst the Emperor at that very moment 
was unaware of the greater half of his victory, the 
King ignored the half of his misfortunes, and at the 
very time that we were taking possession of Weimar, 
he had fixed upon Weimar as the rallying point of 
his defeat. 

But during this day, in the midst of such an unequal 
struggle, and although he had been obliged several 
times to take refuge in the midst of his squares, 
Davout, who never forgot anything, and did everything 
at the proper time, had not thought only of conquering 
by a front attack, one against three, but he was also 
prepared to take advantage of his victory. Whilst 
doing everything to secure it at his centre and left, 
his right under Friant had pushed forwards as far as 
Kckartsberg, and had outflanked the king’s left, turn- 
ing it back upon the Emperor, and separating it 
from the Elbe and its retreat, by which last movement 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 2905 


he completed and crowned his work. The King 
was thrown back into this plain of Jena and Weimar, 
where at that moment Napoleon was triumphant. 

Here the left wing of Hohenlohe and the King’s 
routed forces met each other. Where could they flee 
to? The victorious French were everywhere: Davout 
on the east, Bernadotte on the south, the Emperor 
on the west; Weimar itself, the spot chosen for their 
retreat was invaded. A single space to the north, 
but without any made road was still free from the 
enemy. In this direction the infantry, the cavalry, the 
guns, crossed and ran up against each other. Many 
soldiers threw down their arms, those of the artillery 
cut their traces, and all took flight at haphazard, 
helter-skelter across the fields, Erfurt was taken with 
300 guns, 40 generals and 50,000 of the enemy killed, 
wounded, or taken prisoners, whilst all the remainder 
were disheartened, disorganized and routed. This was 
the immediate result of these two simultaneous battles 
and one single day’s fighting. 

We lost there 11,000 men killed or disabled; Davout 
lost 7,000 to 8,000 out of 25,000; the Emperor, 3,000 out 
of 50,000. 

At the beginning of this grand day towards three 
o’clock in the morning, notwithstanding the last orders 
of the Emperor, and in spite of the offer of the com- 
mandership-in-chief made to him by Davout, Berna- 
dotte separated himself from this marshal to retire 
upon Dornberg. About ten o’clock and at the most 
critical moment, Davout, bare-headed, having been 
uncovered by a bullet, sent to beseech him to come to 
his help. Bernadotte at that moment had got as far 
as the bridge of Camburg which he had only to cross, 


296 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


and a few minutes would have sufficed to bring him 
at the head of 50,000 men on the enemy’s right flank; 
his advent would have decided the victory; yet he 
refused to come. Davout called him, besought him, 
offered him the command; Bernadotte knew that he 
was attacked by triple forces, and yet continued his 
peaceful march on the opposite bank and withdrew. 
It was not fear of the responsibility, nor any other 
fear, that held him back. His own people said that 
he would have been a hero in his own cause, but 
his disposition was such—thoroughly exclusive. He 
only opened his heart when everything depended upon 
him alone; then it became full of ardour, generosity, 
and devotion for his own people who found in him all 
the seductions and fascinations of a great soul. But to 
endure an equal or a superior; to help on the glory 
of another, whoever he might be; such an effort was 
always either impossible or intolerable to him. It was 
believed by some, that a personal hatred of Davout had 
made him commit this detestable action, which would 
explain it without rendering it the more excusable. 
As for Davout, who was a man of probity, of order, 
and of duty above all, although he had already done 
good service, and had obtained the rank of marshal, 
he had nevertheless in our eyes remained an obscure 
individual. It was said that it was Valmy which had 
made Kellerman a marshal of France; Fleurus, Jour- 
dan; Castiglione, Augereau; Zurich, Masséna; a hundred 
glorious deeds, Lefebvre, Ney, and Lannes; and that 
others who had been singled out had previously held 
the chief command; whilst as for Davout, it would seem 
that the Emperor had specially desired to reward his 
private services, and that his renown had less to do 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 297 


with it than his devotion to Napoleon’s person. Such 
had been the general opinion. But by this single day 
of Auerstedt, Davout proved that his thorough- 
going and tenacious genius had only needed oppor- 
tunity; that great circumstances make great men, and 
that it is by their promptitude in grasping such cir- 
cumstances and taking advantage of them, that these 
men gain recognition for themselves. 

The choice of the Emperor was justified in Davout. 
In a few hours, he emerged from his unfair obscurity 
a justly celebrated man. 


CHArPIDR ot 
BERLIN. 


APOLEON’S first care after his victory and that 
of Davout was to dictate the bulletin. Davout 
received the highest praise, but the facts were not 
reported as they had happened; only one battle was men- 
tioned, whereas there had been two. The Emperor 
also had the credit of the greater part of the victory, 
whilst the contrary was the case. It is true that there 
may have been some error concerning this last fact, 
for Davout’s victory seemed almost inconceivable. 
Napoleon then summoned the 300 Saxon officers 
whom he had taken the previous night and harangued 
them. “He had only taken arms,” he said, “to free 
“Dresden from the yoke of Berlin, but for what pos- 
“sible cause had their Sovereign suffered himself to 
“be led into taking up arms against France? Was it 
“not to her that for two centuries past, Saxony, 
“threatened by Austria and Prussia, owed its indepen- 
“dence? Could not the Saxons see that even to-day in 
“the Rhine Confederation, a similar protection was 
“offered to their prince? Let them then swear no longer 
“to serve against France, and free, together with their 
“soldiers, let them return to their own country to 


“carry back to their homes these promises of alliance.” 
2098 


MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 299 


Such was the gist of his speech, to which they responded 
with acclamations and all took the required oath, which 
they afterwards signed. 

The Emperor then went on to Weimar, where his 
conduct was worthy of his victory; the instructions 
which he gave to profit by it were despatched from 
that town. It was there that he learnt from Ney and 
Murat, the capitulation of Erfurt and of 15,000 men, 
a first result of the discouragement which followed on 
these two battles. On his way from Jena to Weimar, 
he received Frederic’s reply to the offers of peace 
which he had made on the eve of the combat, and 
the request for an armistice. He answered: “That 
“he had written to prevent the battle; that it had been 
“fought, and that it only remained for him to reap the 
“fruits of it.” Upon which coming to a conclusion 
from the King’s letter as to the direction in which he 
had taken flight, he made use of this knowledge to 
pursue him. 

He arrived at Naumburg on the 17th, after having 
crossed the still bloody field of Auersteedt. The 
tokens of carnage that were visible here, seemed to 
make more impression upon him than at any other 
time: he was heard to exclaim: “That a battle-field 
“was an awful spectacle! That up to thirty years of 
“age, one might be dazzled by victory to the point of 
“considering such horrors glorious, but that later... .” 
I do not know what he added, but he was under the 
influence of the same impression at Naumburg which 
he found full of our wounded, and from there he 
wrote to the Empress in similar terms. 

There also he learnt the details of Bernadotte’s con- 
duct during this massacre: “It was an odious act,” 


300 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


he said, “a Council of war would condemn him to 
“death, but the thing is so shameful that it is better 
“to be silent about it. I hand him over to his con- 
“science and to the opinion of the army; as for mine, 
“he shall soon know what that is.” 

On October 19th from Naumburg to Mersberg, while 
going over the battle-field of Rosbach he had its triumphal 
column taken down and sent away to France. Later on 
at Halle, then at Dessau, on October 20th and 22nd, 
seeing more and more of the results of his victory, in 
those sanguinary blows of fate which had so cruelly 
stricken the enemy’s chiefs who had provoked this 
war, he felt that his own star was more than ever in 
the ascendant, and believed in it more firmly than 
ever: “It was the finger of Providence itself,” he said, 
“which had marked out these victims!” 

It was, I think, after Wittemberg, that whilst cross- 
ing a pine wood, the Emperor, who had been obliged 
by a violent storm to take shelter in an isolated 
habitation, was surprised to be recognised by the 
inhabitant of this cottage. He learnt that although a 
Saxon by birth, having married a French officer in Egypt, 
and become a mother and a widow without being able 
to obtain a pension from the Directorate, she had been 
forced to leave France. Upon which Napoleon com- 
passionately held out his hand to her, saying: “ That 
“he would make reparation for this injustice by taking 
“upon himself the bringing up of her son.” Whilst 
signing an order to this effect, he added: “ This was 
“the first adventure that had ever befallen him in the 
“midst of a storm and a forest, and that he thanked 
“the fates it was such a lucky one!” 

On October 24th, I preceded Napoleon to Potsdam, 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 301 


the Versailles of Berlin. Twice already during former 
missions, I, like many others, had gazed upon the 
relics that the Great Frederic had left there. But on 
this occasion, instead of drawing near with timid respect, 
I took possession of this royal residence and of Sans- 
Souci as one of our conquests. Being acquainted with 
the place, the first thing I did was to visit the room 
which had been formerly inhabited by the great king. 
I found everything in the same position under the 
care of the same servant. I venture to confess (for in 
the sudden whim that seized me, there was not a 
vestige of any feeling of profanation for which I should 
still blush) that at the sight of this celebrated seat 
whence had issued so many biting sarcasms, and so 
many redoubtable judgments; which had witnessed so 
many profound meditations in whose course Frederic, 
undazzled by fame, had been able to consolidate his 
conquests by so wise a policy, I could not resist the 
indiscreet wish to be able to remember all my life that 
I had for a moment occupied his place. I must there- 
fore own, that with uncovered head, I sat down for 
an instant in this arm-chair, gazing with curiosity on 
everything that I could see from this position. 

To the right of the seat, a door had been left open 
in the wall against which it was placed; amongst other 
objects in the cupboard I noticed a single eye-glass, 
and I ventured to touch and even to try it. The glass 
was a concave one: its number 8 or g, it could only 
have suited an extremely short sight. “What!” I 
exclaimed, rising up suddenly, for I was not feeling 
quite at my ease, “did this glass belong to the Great 
“Frederic?” The servant answered in the affirmative, 
adding that this object, like all those which were there, 


302 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


had always been kept religiously in the same place 
where they were found on the death of the great man. 
I tried it again several times, and, in spite of a temp- 
tation which I had to overcome, scrupulously restored 
to the same place from which I had taken it, the glass 
which seemed to me, and really was, so remarkable. 

Thus on a field of battle where sight is of so great 
importance, Frederic the Great, afflicted with the same 
short sight as Alexander the Great, and the great 
Gustavus Adolphus, had not been hindered in his 
victories by this defect any more than had these two 
great warriors! In a lesser degree Davout at Auersteedt 
offered another instance of this phenomenon. These 
examples prove that one must seek the source of great 
actions in character alone; that, as regards battles, 
men in such high positions who have once decided on 
their plans, recognised the important points and given 
their orders in consequence, need nothing beyond a 
general impression, and details may perhaps sometimes 
distract attention from the whole; such details being 
easily supplied by the subordinates whom they have 
selected, formed, or inspired. 

I was absorbed in these reflections while placing 
my posts round the palace, when Napoleon arrived. 
He insisted on being immediately taken to see these 
relics upon which I gazed with a feeling of embar- 
rassment somewhat akin to remorse! The Emperor 
examined them with attentive and silent curiosity. 
It was, I think, on the next day (October 25th) that 
meeting him on his way as he was leaving the end 
of the town on foot in a brown study, I followed him 
as far as the church which contains the tomb of the 
Great Frederic. He walked rather hurriedly at first 


————— 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 303 


but as he drew near the church, he moderated his 
pace, which became slower still and more measured, 
as he approached the remains of the great King to 
whom he had come to pay homage. The door of the 
monument was open; and he stopped at the entrance 
in a grave and meditative attitude. His glances 
seemed to penetrate the gloom which reigned around 
these august ashes, and he remained there nearly ten 
minutes, motionless and silent, as if absorbed in pro- 
found thought. There were four or five of us around 
him: Duroc, Berthier, Caulaincourt, the aide-de-camp 
on duty, and myself. We pondered on this solemn 
and extraordinary meeting, picturing to ourselves these 
two great souls in presence of one another, and 
identifying our thoughts with those which we imagined 
must fill the mind of our Emperor in contemplation 
before this other genius, whose glory had survived the 
overthrow of his grand work, who had been equally 
great in extreme adversity as at the summit of 
prosperity, and who had known where to stop! 

I do not know whether it was before or after this 
pilgrimage that he caused the sword and insignia of 
the great man to be taken away as a trophy, for the 
consolation of those of our Invalides who had escaped 
the catastrophe of Rosbach. On the day of our 
departure for Potsdam, (October 26) the Prince of 
Hatzfeldt came to bring the Emperor the keys of 
Berlin. During this audience those who accompanied 
Hatzfeldt censured their princes as the authors of the 
war, and answered for the submission of the capital. 
We shall soon see how this step compromised the 
Prussian nobleman, and nearly caused his ruin. 

On that day the news of the surrender of Spandau 


304 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


had been received. Napoleon had gone to visit this 
fortress, whence he returned to sleep at Charlottenberg ; 
but having lost his way he only arrived an hour before 
dark, on horseback, alone, and soaked with drenching 
rain. There was no inhabitant or care-taker on the 
premises, and the grass was growing in the court-yard 
of this royal residence which seemed entirely forsaken. 
I had only just arrived there, and was trying to open 
the door, when I saw the Emperor appear, he dismounted 
and united his efforts to mine, reproaching me that he 
had been left thus isolated, which was really an act 
of imprudence in the middle of an enemy’s country: 
“Why had I not posted any troops on his way? How 
“was it that he was without guards?” I answered that 
it was not my fault, and he roughly told me to hold 
my tongue; but the moment afterwards, the door having 
yielded to our efforts, his humour changed. It was 
while walking through these apartments that he per- 
ceived a good number of letters which had been left 
by the Queen in a chiffonier which I had just opened 
out of curiosity. The Emperor made fun about this 
correspondence having been forgotten, declaring that 
it might be a lover’s correspondence, and joking on 
the indiscretion which he might not be able to master, 
and which would make him a confidant of the secrets 
of the princess. 

He then examined with curiosity all the evidences 
of this Queen’s habits, making some observation or 
other on every object, with that caressing tone of voice 
which he knew so well how to adopt when he wanted 
to make reparation for a hasty or unjust movement 
of impatience towards any of us. 

During the last year there had been a complete 


et 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON lI. 305 


alteration in Napoleon’s actions as well as in his 
speech. The preceding year, showing moderation in 
his victory, after having overthrown the third coalition, 
he had spared the conquered people the spectacle of a 
triumphant entry into Vienna. But with regard to the 
defeat of this fourth coalition—this new ally of England 
who had become more than ever his implacable rival— 
everything he did was a threat in which the conqueror 
asserted himself. Hence this solemn entry into Berlin. 
He received the authorities as a victor, took possession 
of the government, and also of the royal residence, 
where I received him on October 27th. 

His anger, nevertheless, did not cause him to act 
blindly. Several princes and princesses of the royal 
blood, having been surprised in the town, thus found 
themselves in our power; he went to visit and com- 
fort them, insisting that all honours due to their 
rank should be fully paid them; one of these, 
the young Prince Augustus, who was wounded and a 
prisoner, he set free, restoring him to Prince Ferdinand 
his father. The people were reassured; the police 
superintendence of the town was entrusted to the 
pick of the middle class; whilst his anger against the 
nobility broke out in a threatening apostrophe: ¢ It 
“had insisted on war in spite of its king; it should 
“bear the whole burden of it.” He said a good deal 
more and kept his word to the letter. All his threats 
had been premeditated, the proof of which is seen in 
their publication under his directions. The same 
feeling was underlying the humiliation which he chose 
to inflict on the gendarmes of the guard. This whole 
corps taken with arms in their hands, was one ot 
those which had most insulted the Grand Army and 


22 


306 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


the Emperor by its scorn. Their arrogance had been 
displayed in Berlin, and he chose that this city should 
witness the sight of its young masters, who had 
formerly cherished such outrageous presumptions, pass- 
ing through the streets, a long file of captives, on 
foot, disarmed, and loaded with universal reprobation. 

But to return to his entry into this capital. An 
incident worthy of remark took place on that day. 
The Prince of Hatzfeldt had for the second time 
presented himself before the Emperor at the head of 
the defeated authorities. This painful position had been 
accepted by the Prussian general through devotion to 
his king, but either he did not sufficiently realize what 
it would entail upon him, or he had made up his 
mind to brave the consequences, for whilst with one 
hand he brought the keys of the capital to Napoleon, 
with the other he informed Frederic of the situation 
of our army in the midst of its conquest. Davout had 
seized his correspondence; but of this the Prince of 
Hatzfeldt was not aware, when the Emperor at sight of 
him exclaimed with a glance as black as thunder: “ With- 
“draw, sir! retire to your own estates, never dare to 
“come before me again, I do not require your services.” 

Hatzfeldt had drawn this upon himself, and a reception 
of this nature was perhaps a sufficient lesson. But 
the Emperor’s anger was much increased after he had 
perused the intercepted dispatch that night: he gave 
orders that the unfortunate general should be immediately 
seized and brought before a military commission as a 
spy, even insisting that he should be conducted to 
the palace where he was himself residing, to be kept 
under watch night and day, and that, entrusted to 
my guardianship, I should answer for his person. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 307 


Napoleon was perhaps within his rights in arresting 
and bringing the guilty man to judgment, if such 
rights may be considered paramount to all humane 
considerations. But to turn his own residence into a 
criminal prison, to constitute himself in his palace his 
victim’s gaoler, by the agency of his own guard and 
the officers attached to his personal service, was such 
an extreme measure that none of us believed matters 
would proceed any further. And what he had no doubt 
himself foreseen, came about. 

Whilst he was that very day reviewing Davout’s main 
body, and heaping praise and rewards upon it, prepar- 
ing himself no doubt for a generous forgiveness, I had 
gone into the prisoner’s chamber, not so much to be 
a watch upon him as to allay his apprehensions. A 
similar feeling had led the Grand-Marshal Duroc to 
endeavour to calm the anxiety of the Princess of Hatz- 
feldt, wife of the unfortunate general. Night had 
arrived and the review was over; the palace was a 
blaze of light; the grenadiers of the guard were already 
lining the narrow and winding staircase up to the 
door of the first room of the Emperor’s suite, when 
this poor princess, who was on the eve of her confine- 


ment, trembling from head to foot, was confided to 


my care. Against all orders, I placed her at the very 
door of Napoleon’s reception room by which he 
must enter. Unfortunately I was so engrossed in 
encouraging her when the Emperor appeared, that I 
forgot to order the drummer who was posted near her 
to keep silence; so that at the first sudden roll of the 
drum, she was as much terrified as if she had heard 
the volley of musketry which she feared for her husband, 
and fell into my arms almost unconscious. “ What 


308 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“does all this mean?” asked the Emperor, and on my 
reply, “ That is well,” he answered more by his look 
than in words, passing by so quickly that I hardly 
had time to revive the princess sufficiently to push 
her after him into his room, whose doors being closed 
immediately, separated us. 

Half an hour later, she issued forth in great emotion 
and still half beside herself, but moved by sentiments 
of the most lively gratitude. Grand-Marshal Duroc 
and I then led her to the very arms of the Prince of 
Hatzfeldt whom we had the happiness of restoring to 
her grateful delight. 

We learnt later from her, and from Napoleon himself 
how she had obtained his pardon. Received with 
every consideration, her first idea had been to defend her 
husband by protestations of his innocence. ‘“ Being a 
“daughter of the Minister Schulemberg, one of Napoleon’s 
“greatest enemies, the Emperor doubtless,” she said, 
“wanted to revenge himself upon her father through 
“the man whom he had chosen for his son-in-law.” 
This supposition may have seemed offensive, but Napoleon 
took no notice of it; his only answer was to call for 
the incriminating dispatch which he made her read, and 
of which he constituted her the judge after explaining 
its consequences; but greatly touched by her extreme 
distress he hastened to add, pointing to the fire before 
which she was seated: “ Well, as you hold in your 
“hands the proof of the crime, destroy it, and thus 
“disarm the severity of our martial laws.” He had 
hardly finished speaking, before the happy princess 
had thrown the fatal letter into the very heart of the 
fire. The Emperor then proceeded to reassure her 
with a promise of his protection, and despatched her 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 309 


immediately to her husband whom he had enabled her 
to save from his own hands by this ingenious clemency. 

This action of the Emperor, simple in itself, but 
fine as to its method, occurred, as we have said, after 
his review of Davout’s main body. His nobility of 
soul manifested itself during this review by an act of 
justice of another kind. Since October 15th, his sense 
of honesty was suffering, burdened as he felt it to be 
by his lieutenant’s share of glory which he had attri- 
buted to himself in the bulletin where, confounding 
Auersteedt in Jena he had made one battle of these 
two victories. He had indeed seized every opportunity 
to restitute in detail the fame he had usurped, although 
his policy did not admit of a more open and complete 
restitution. Even at Jena during the night of the 14th 
to the 15th, when, two hours after the Emperor had 
received my report of Weimar, Colonel Bourck, one 
of Davout’s officers, had brought him the news of our 
victory at Auerstedt: “ My cousin,” he wrote to the 
marshal, “the combat of Auerstedt is one of the 
“grandest days in the history of France. I owe it to 
“the brave troops of the 3rd corps and to the general 
“who commanded -them; I am well pleased that it 
“should have been yourself.” 

The next day at Weimar, again returning to the 
subject, he concluded an order of the day with these 
words: “ Davout and his main body had thus acquired 
undying rights to his esteem and gratitude!” At 
Naumburg he had himself gone to visit and comfort 
this marshal’s many wounded men. At Wittemberg, 
he had insisted that Davout should have the honour 
of being the first to enter into the enemy’s capital; 
and in his order of the day he had gloriously justified 


310 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


this preference. Finally, on October 28th, at Berlin, 
during his review of Davout’s main body, he had con- 
secrated the whole day to the expression of his grati- 
tude, and crowned its close by an act of clemency. 
In token of his satisfaction he bestowed 500 stars of 
honour and innumerable promotions to various grades. 
As for this last favour, it was indeed necessitated by 
circumstances, because he had to fill up the great 
gaps that had been created; but by distributing these 
promotions with his own hands, their value, which his 
kindly words still further augmented, was greatly 
increased. 

From rank to rank he went, seeking out the private 
soldier as well as the officer and the general. These 
eulogies of the great Emperor, his attitude, his ex- 
pression, his gestures while speaking, the intimate 
acquaintance which the humblest private imagined he had 
contracted with the great man, would henceforth form 
inexhaustible subjects of conversation in company, and 
in family correspondence. ‘They were so many brevets 
of immortality, which would render each one illustrious 
for ever, whether in his squadron, his town, or his village. 

Having produced this first effect of which Napoleon 
fully recognised the influence, his generals, his officers, 
and non-commissioned officers of all ranks were sum- 
moned to gather in a circle around him. Then with 
that voice which seemed to be the voice of Fame, the 
voice of History: “ Their valour,” he said, “had ren- 
“dered him most signal service at Jena. All the glo- 
“rious results of this war were entirely due to their 
“splendid and brilliant conduct. He regretted their 
“dead comrades as if they had been his own children. 
“ All of you,” he repeated, “have earned lasting rights 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 311 


“to my benefits and my undying gratitude! ” At these 
words which raised this main body of the army to the 
very first rank in the glory of conquest, the enthusiasm 
was universal. Davout in a transport of joy replied: 
“ Sire, we are your Tenth Legion, the 3rd corps will be 
“to you everywhere and always what that legion was 
=to Ceesar!” 

The grand scale of this comparison did not seem 
too ambitious, and was not considered out of place in 
the mouth of this marshal. Those who knew him best, 
said that there was something antique in his inflexi- 
bility, as severe to himself as to others; and above 
all in the stoical simplicity, superior to all vanity, 
with which he always walked straight forward to the 
undeviating accomplishment of his duty. In that day 
he did not give a single thought to the fact that in 
this chorus of praise he alone was still shorn of his 
full share. Napoleon repaired this wrong later on; 
for in creating him Duke of Auersteedt, he thus made 
restitution to his servant of the battle which belonged to 
him, the grander and more decisive of the two victories, 

In the midst of so many cares in the present and 
the future, we all remarked during his stay in Berlin, 
that his disposition, which was so thoroughly and abso- 
lutely inflexible in the path of ambition, had become sensi- 
tive and generous as it was by nature under other 
conditions, and that he showed himself in conversation 
irresistible and fascinating, and of the most easy access. 
The Princess of Hesse-Cassel, Frederic’s sister, who 
had been left behind in the disorder of defeat, had 
remained ill and ignored in one of the apartments of 
the palace. She was absolutely destitute, which Napo- 
leon only heard of by chance. He immediately sent 


312 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


her 2,000 golden louis, gave orders that all her own 
possessions should be restored to her, and all her 
wishes granted, and he went himself several times to 
comfort her in her misfortune. 

Humboldt and other less illustrious savants were 
invited to the palace, and they all departed full of 
admiration and gratitude. One of them, the celebrated 
historian Jean de Miiller, has thus recorded his remi- 
niscences: “ Never,” he wrote, “since his conversa- 
“tions with the Great Frederic, had he listened to 
“such varied, solid, and energetic discourse.” With 
regard to the depth and breadth of ideas, he gave the 
preference to the Emperor over the great king. He said 
that in the charming expression of the mouth which dis- 
tinguished both of them, he discovered the same gentle- 
ness and the same attraction. Miller adds curious 
details on the means which Napoleon employed to 
fascinate him; such as an exclusive converse with this 
most renowned historian of Germany in the midst of 
an assemblage of the very highest rank, and the 
delicate attention he showed him by ordering the 
national airs of his country to be played during the 
evening concert. 

Thus did Napoleon and Frederic both pay court, in 
the person of the historian of their day, to one of the 
hundred voices of that fame for which they made so 
many sacrifices. And yet it has been said that these two 
great men despised the human species. What a singular 
contradiction between their scorn and their deeds; 
between their contempt for men, and the value which 
they attached to their praise and esteem; the care 
they took to gain their admiration and to survive in 
their memory! But every great man lives upon 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I, 313 


incense, and however he may despise it in small doses, 
he values it in the lump. 

However it may be, the Emperor gained his end 
on that occasion, for Miller winds up by declaring: 
“That this conversation of November 19th made 
“that day stand out from his whole life, and that the 
“natural kindness of heart and genius of Napoleon had 
“also made a complete conquest of him.” 

A deputation of the French senate then arrived to - 
render homage to him. This body was his favourite 
instrument, that upon which he most counted to 
legalize his dictatorship; he gave it honours for 
honours; he commanded that the 340 standards which 
had been taken, and the insignia of the Great Frederic, 
should be given to the care of these senators, so that 
their return to France should be a triumphal one. 
As for the multitude of Prussian prisoners, he sent 
them away at the same time into the interior, offering 
the use of their disarmed service, for which a moderate 
salary would be sufficient, to our manufacturers and 
cultivators, to replace our conscripts, whose absence 
was making itself much felt. 

The greater part of his army had now passed 
through Berlin under his eyes. Every day he could be 
seen on the palace square, reviewing the different 
bodies in succession; superintending their re-constitution, 
and by his voice and his victorious hand exalting 
self-esteem by his praise, and exciting emulation by 
his rewards. At that time certain inflamed imaginations 
around him conceived that madness of extremes which 
can only lead downwards into the abyss. Murat was 
the first. In the pride of his dazzling renown, after 
having exterminated Hohenlohe and Blucher, he had 


314 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


hastened to the Emperor in Berlin, arriving there at 
the moment when Davout’s letters were received from 
Posen, full of the fiery enthusiasm of Poland. The 
Poles at the sight of the French eagles, no longer 
doubted of their coming freedom. 


CHAPTER XXir 
I AM TAKEN PRISONER. 


N November 27th, 1807, Napoleon arrived at 
Posen. The war with Prussia was at an end. 

The war of Poland against the Russians was beginning. 
I had received at Berlin the order to precede Napo- 
leon by a few days, first at Posen, then at Warsaw. 
I was not charged with any political mission, but the 
first arrival in these two towns of an officer attached 
to the Emperor, and the establishment of his head- 
quarters which I superintended, had made some sensa- 
tion there. Attracted as I was by the lively and brilliant 
intellect, and the patriotic and chivalrous enthusiasm 
of the nobility of this country, the demonstrative 
welcome of these ardent and open-hearted souls com- 
pletely won me. I joined some of their gatherings, 
where in spite of the seriousness and reserve which 
was habitual to all those about Napoleon, I entered 
into their delight, and sympathized with the hopes of 
that brave and charming nation which was so worthy 
of a better fate. This will explain the exaggerated 
severity to which I was a victim during the captivity 
which awaited me in the midst of the Russian army. 
The Emperor, almost alone, had unexpectedly 


entered Warsaw on the night of December 18th. 
315 


316 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


Before day-break on the 23rd, I followed him to 
Davout’s head-quarters on the banks of the Bug. He 
had arrived there about ten o’clock in the morning, 
and, impatient to resume his martial habits and as if 
weary of this whole month of abstinence from warfare, 
was to be seen immediately crossing the river and 
hastening to the advance posts upon the Ukra, there 
to examine with the most scrupulous attention, some- 
times on horseback, sometimes on foot, sometimes 
even from the housetops, the positions of the enemy 
and our own. He had mastered them so completely, 
that on his return to Davout’s camp, he had himself 
dictated the order of attack with a detail which would 
appear impossible, if the document were not still in 
existence. The close of the day had been designated 
for the commencement of this affair, and the signal 
that had been agreed upon was the setting on fire of 
a house. 

The composition, the locality, the direction, not only 
of the attacking and reserve columns, but of each of 
their half-batteries, each company of skirmishers and 
the smallest cavalry pickets which were intended to 
support them; the indication of the various points and 
means of transport, of the manner in which each arm 
was to be opposed according to the nature of the 
locality and the calculated resistance; these were the 
arrangements which he had enjoined on our front. 
He had added others for two simultaneous flank attacks; 
he had even suggested that after the first volleys a 
thick smoke should be produced by setting fire to heaps 
of wet straw placed on the enemy’s right with a 
view to harass their general by forcing him to select 
another passage. 





OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 317 


All these minutize had made those around Davout 
believe, that the Emperor meant to honour the army 
corps that had conquered at Auersteedt by taking the 
command of it himself. That may have been the 
case, but one should not the less take note of this as 
a memorable example of all the precautions which are 
necessary to the preparation of a nocturnal combat. 
More than on any other occasion, everything must 
be foreseen by the general in this kind of warfare, 
for immediately the engagement has begun, the chances 
can no longer be seized at a glance. As a conse- 
quence, this operation was crowned with success, 
in spite of the difficulties of the locality increased by 
the opposing entrenchments, and by Ostermann’s skilful 
and obstinate resistance. This conflict cost us about 
a thousand men; and the enemy, which had retired 
upon Nasielsk, lost double. 

The principal thing to be noticed was our loss of 
officers, which was out of all proportion; this was 
attributed to the necessity in these night attacks of 
their going on in front of their men, to lead them, to 
encourage them, to make themselves better heard, and 
the easier to recognise the obstacles which have to 
be surmounted. The Emperor himself had established 
his quarters in a cottage, within reach of the Russian 
guns, intending to preside at the fight as well as to 
superintend all its arrangements. He distributed us 
upon the different points of attack, and took no rest 
until he had gathered from our reports that success 
was assured. 

When I brought him mine it was about eleven o’clock 
at night. I found him as at Jena lying in a wretched 
bed which belonged to the cottage. Having made my 


318 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


report of the attack upon our left, I excused myself 
for being so late, on the ground that my horse, having 
been killed in an offensive return of the Russians 
against the 12th line regiment, I had been obliged to 
come back on foot. There was nothing very extra- 
ordinary in this accident, and I could not understand 
why the Emperor, lifting up his head, said to me 
eagerly twice over, “You do not mean it? Your horse 
“killed under you?” I left him surprised but grateful 
for this mark of interest; four days previously he had 
ordered me to assume the duties of his personal aide- 
de-camp; this accident probably made him still more 
desirous that I should be near him. I have every reason 
to think so. But in any case, being separated from him 
the next day by a stroke of misfortune, that good 
luck was retarded for the space of six years. 

I cannot help relating here a rather uncommon fact, 
the recollection of which always moves me. I have 
said that during the nocturnal attack of the Ukra on 
December 23rd I was unhorsed. My animal had been 
wounded by a bullet in his chest from which the blood 
was streaming; and as he could no longer carry me, 
I had been forced to leave him, loading his equipment 
on my shoulders. When I had reached our first out- 
post about three hundred paces off, I sat down to rest 
before the fire, in some grief at the loss of my mount, 
when a plaintive sound and an unexpected contact 
caused me to turn my head. It was the poor beast 
which had revived, and had dragged itself in the 
wake of my footsteps; in spite of the distance and the 
darkness it had succeeded in finding me, and recog- 
nising me by the light of the camp fire, had come up 
groaning to lay its head on my shoulder. My eyes 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 319 


filled with tears at this last proof of attachment, and I was 
gently stroking it, when exhausted from the blood it had 
lost, and its efforts to follow me, in the midst of the 
men who were as surprised and touched as myself, it 
fell down, struggled for a moment, and expired. 

Misfortunes, it is said, come in troops; it would seem 
as if isolation were not in their nature. A series of 
accidents now befell me. On leaving the Emperor’s 
miserable bedroom, I passed through a kind of pas- 
sage bestrewn with straw, which was the only other 
shelter to be found in this cottage. A Piedmontese 
officer, who afterwards distinguished himself greatly, 
was asleep there; awoke suddenly, he began to abuse 
me before he knew what he was about; and as he still 
persisted in his conduct when wide awake, I was obliged 
to fix the next day to settle the quarrel. 

Behold me with my horse killed, and a duel on my 
hands! But this was not the end of it: the next day my 
adversary and I were separated for a time by marching 
orders, and I went off with Rapp who was the general 
in command of the cavalry of the advance-guard. As 
soon as we had arrived in sight of Nasielsk, we per- 
ceived the enemy on the opposite thickly wooded side 
of the valley in which this town is situated. At our 
first discharge of grape-shot the enemy’s line partly 
opened, leaving a vacant space; I proposed to Rapp 
to charge it with one of his regiments, so as to pre- 
vent the Russians reuniting, of which Rapp approved, 
and asked me to put the manceuvre into execution. 
I began it to the left of the town with Exelmans and 
the 1st regiment of mounted chasseurs which he com- 
manded. I finished it with the 12th dragoons, Exel- 
mans having been drawn to the right by the attack 


320 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


of Nasielsk. But the colonel of the 12th lost his head; 
instead of holding the plain which was already cleared, 
the heat of pursuit led him away to the woods of tall 
trees which bounded it. I joined him there, and made 
him realize his extreme imprudence. We were so 
absurdly out of place in this wood, that to get out we 
were obliged to go in single file, bent double over 
our horses to avoid the branches which caught on 
the helmets of the dragoons. 

It was high time; the enemy’s fugitives were 
reassembling by groups on the edge of the forest to 
slaughter us one after the other as we came out of 
this cut-throat pass. I was the twenty-fifth to escape 
their fire. Then with a view to facilitate the exit of 
the remainder, rallying the squadron, I overthrew the 
nearest group of the enemy. But in saving the regi- 
ment, I lost myself, and by a similar fault which I had 
just blamed in the colonel. 

Up to then the manceuvre which I had advised 
and was executing had succeeded. The line of the 
enemy’s cavalry which had been separated in half was 
not able to reunite itself; some of them were flying 
to the left on the roads of Novemiasto and Wirziki; 
their general on the contrary with the bulk of his 
division was withdrawing to the right on the road to 
Srzégocin. As for us, placed between them, we dis- 
covered that we had turned Nasielsk, while Exelmans 
and Rapp were at that very moment attacking it on the 
front; there was nothing consequently for us to do 
but to take advantage of this by uniting our efforts 
with theirs against the town and Ostermann’s rear- 
guard. The 12th dragoons, released from the forest 
by the charge which I had just executed, did not fail tc 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 321 


make this attack. I alone with the squad which I 
had carried with me, was cut off from it. 

Our first rush through the midst of these hussars 
who were escaping in confusion had been so energetic, 
that, pursuing them much too far into the forest on the 
road to Wirziki, I found myself surrounded by them. 
I stopped to return to the attacking point, when one 
of them passed me so quickly that he only just escaped 
a thrust from my sword. This irritated me so much 
that I started in pursuit, plunging blindly into the 
forest until I had reached and struck him down. 

I must own that this was a mistake, and a most 
imprudent loss of temper on the part of a soldier, I 
soon recognised this, when I saw how far I was from 
my own men, in the midst of enormous pine-trees 
whose motionless silence was only broken by the 
movement of the flying Russians whom I could perceive 
seeking the shelter of these great trees to the right 
and left of the roadway; they were fortunately so 
scared that they allowed me to turn my horse and 
rejoin the few dragoons who had followed me, and 
had imprudently taken the same course. 

These dragoons were returning on their steps; and 
two of their officers, seized with giddiness, and not 
perceiving the danger of their position, were going 
along at a foot pace, talking as if we were ina state 
of peace, without even thinking of rallying the small 
squadron which they commanded. They neither lis- 
tened to my representations, nor to those of their 
non-commissioned officers, who pointed out to them 
a mass of every arm of the enemy barring the exit 
of the forest above Nasielsk, and preparing to contest 
with us its issue into the plain. 

23 


322 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


It was very evident that there was no hope for 
us except to get out as we had got in—by a 
desperate charge; but these officers (one of whom, 
the son of a Terrorist, had, I think, brought ill-luck 
upon us) had completely lost their judgment. In- 
comprehensibly persistent in their thoughtless negli- 
gence, they seemed to me to be stamped by fatality, 
_ like the branded beasts led to the slaughter-house. 
In their default I hastened to join their dragoons, 
of whom there were twenty-two; but as there was 
no one to command them, they had gone on in 
front, so that when I wanted to rally them and 
take the command, it was too late. All this was 
the affair of a few seconds, for in these critical mo- 
ments, action is quicker than speech. The dragoons 
who were furthest off without a chief, in disorder 
and repulsed, had abandoned the high road to throw 
themselves to the left into a swampy field which 
was contiguous to some canals. Notwithstanding my 
outcries and my imprecations, they carried on their 
officers with them, and, left alone on the high way, 
I was obliged to follow them on this land which had 
no egress. 

There, surrounded and fired upon at close quarters, 
they allowed themselves to be shot down without seeking 
to defend themselves. I saw the unfortunates dismount 
and plant their swords in front of them, showing that 
they meant to surrender. All perished except three 
dragoons, the only ones I was able to rally. 

Once at the end of this ground, crossing the canal, 
we got out of the bog, all four of us flying in our 
turn, and followed up a track through the last row of 
pines which separated the road to Wirziki from that 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 323 


of Srzégocin. This road seemed to lead us at first 
towards the sound of our own guns, and though the 
enemy’s rear-guard still occupied Nasielsk, which we 
were obliged to go through to rejoin our army, we 
had not yet lost all hope. 

But I soon perceived that this unlucky road deviated 
to the left, thus increasing the distance to Nasielsk. 
We were, however, obliged to follow it and to get on 
quickly, for we again heard behind us the savage cries 
of a multitude of Tartars in hot pursuit. It led us in 
a few minutes out of the forest, but on the road to 
Srzégocin which was covered with troops marching 
_in retreat. At this sight my dragoons, transported 
with joy, exclaimed: “They are ours! we are saved!” 
“Say rather, lost!” I replied. “It is the enemy! We 
“have fallen into the midst of the Russian army! There 
“is only one thing to be done; we must join those first 
“stragglers, take them prisoners, and surrender ourselves 
“to them, they will protect us afterwards.” At that 
instant, seeing a foot soldier alone, I attacked him, and 
retrenching himself behind a ditch, he took aim at me. 

I must confess, that in this desperate moment I 
lowered my sword, and swelled out my chest to re- 
ceive the bullet which would have relieved me from 
an unbearable position; it was raining, and the shot 
missed fire! 

As death did not choose to take me, I returned to 
my original idea. Not being able to reach this soldier, 
and hearing the shouts of the Kalmucks who were get- 
ting nearer and nearer to us, I left him to throw 
myself upon a frightened Cossack, on whose left side 
I had advanced, and whom I summoned to surrender; 
but perceiving his main body a few hundred paces in 


324 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


front and seeing that I was threatening him without 
striking, he continued his flight towards his own men, 
galloping by my side, and thrusting at me all the time 
until his lance pierced my right side. 

Then, wounded, and not being seconded by the 
dragoons, either because they had not understood me, 
or because their exhausted horses had not been able 
to keep up with mine, I changed my tactics. We 
were just then near Count Ostermann’s retreating 
division. Night was approaching, and the left side of 
the road for several hundred feet was still bordered by 
the forest: “To the woods!” I exclaimed to my poor 
companions, “let us lose ourselves there, till our advance- 
guard delivers us 

A moment earlier we might have been saved by 
this inspiration, but such means of safety are so unpalat- 
able that one only resorts to them at the last extremity; 
it was already too late. Our first enemies were then 
debouching from the wood into which they had pursued 
us, and now catching sight of us, and setting off at 
racing speed between us and the wood, they got up 
to us. These were about two score horrible Kalmucks 
and irregular Cossacks. One of the dragoons was 
mortally wounded by them, another was pierced through 
both cheeks by a lance thrust, and I do not know if 
he ever recovered; the third was taken without any 
injury, and seemed so rejoiced at this, that I could not 
help smiling; at least when I thought of it later on, 
for at that moment I had too much to do. 

About fifteen of these savages fell upon me with 
repeated lance thrusts, one of which, rather better 
directed than the others, caught me in the neck and 
bore me to the ground. I got up again promptly, and 


|” 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 325 


gained a few moments by sheltering myself behind 
my horse; but one of these Kalmucks having 
seized my sword and displayed it to the others, 
whose fury increased at the sight of the blood upon 
it, my horse and my arms were powerless to protect me. 
It was in the midst of this rain of blows, that I first 
perceived their chief. He was one of those magni- 
ficent Cossacks of the Don with Persian features; his 
noble countenance was calm and unmoved, and he 
seemed to disdain to slaughter a vanquished and dis- 
armed enemy on the ground; “Nikalé!” he said to 
these madmen, who did not seem to pay any attention 
to him. 

I was ignorant of the meaning of this Russian word 
but I understood the intention, and at once repeated 
imperiously “Nikalé!” several times over. The effect 
of this command from my lips was magical. At the 
sound of this word which I have since been told 
signifies, “do not strike,” surprised to hear me 
speak their language, their ferocious countenances 
expressed nothing but astonishment, and their arms 
remained raised in the air. I owed my life to this 
word; but my torture was not at an end. 

The passion of spoil succeeded to their sanguinary 
brutalities, and throwing themselves upon me, they tore 
off my clothes amongst them, each one dragging at 
me from his own side, lifting me in the air, throwing 
me down and lifting me up again. I had no respite 
until after having stripped me and searched all over 
my body they disputed the spoil. It was especially 
my major’s epaulette which one of them had torn off, 
which excited their envy. Their chief took no part in 
this plunder; he even ordered them to leave me an 


326 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


indispensable garment besides my shirt which was 
tattered and blood-stained. 

I now thought that the worst was over, instead of 
which the last act and the most painful one was still 
to come. At this moment their attention was attracted 
by reports of firing, whose sound seemed to be 
drawing nearer. Afraid for themselves, and also fearing 
they might lose their prey, those who had come off 
worst in the pillage again renewed their ferocious 
treatment. Having quickly remounted their horses, I 
being alone on foot in the midst of them, they pulled 
me on by my arms and hair at the full speed of their 
animals. Those behind me did not spare their blows, 
and I was thus dragged on to Ostermann’s rear-guard, 
where they at last drew rein. 

I was panting, half suffocated, and almost faint- 
ing, and they were continuing to abuse, to buffet 
and ill-treat me, when, taking breath as I perceived a 
Russian regiment fighting with its colonel at its head, 
I snatched myself by a sudden wrench from their 
furious hands, and ran up to place myself under the 
protection of this chief. “Iam a colonel like yourself,” 
I exclaimed, “and a prisoner. This is not how we 
“treat yours. Save me from these savages.” My 
physical agony ceased from that moment, but it was 
the beginning of one of a different nature. 

This colonel, whose name I should like to know, 
did his duty. I was naked, and hardly able to hold 
myself up: he had a cloak thrown over me, and a 
horse procured for me, and gave orders at my request 
that my poor dragoons should be looked after; after 
which he sent us to Count Ostermann-Tolstoi who 
recognised me. The first reception of this general did 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 327 


not please me; it was too imperious. That is their 
manner when restrained by no special consideration, 
a consequence probably of their habits as masters in 
the midst of slaves; he was, besides, anxious about his 
own position. Having been beaten the evening before, 
and being eagerly pressed at this moment, it was im- 
portant to him to know exactly whom he had to deal 
with. So, whilst making me go at a foot’s pace at 
his side, he plied me with questions in the tone of a 
chief who exacts an answer. “Is the Emperor there? 
“With what bodies? What is their number?” —* Count,” 
I answered, “you know me, at any rate you know my 
“name; why uselessly insult me by these questions, 
“when you must feel sure beforehand that nothing 
“would possibly make me answer them.”—“ How, 
“Sir!....” he exclaimed with violence in a sudden 
» 
But civilization at once regaining the ascendant, he 
recovered himself, held out his hand, and deplored my 
fate with concern in his tones; he even thrust aside 
his own anxiety, which was very natural in such a 
critical situation, to ask me news of those amongst us 
whom he had known in France. That evening at his 
quarters at Srzégocin, where we passed the night, and 
next day when we were leaving for Pultusk before 
day-break, his courteousness and kind consideration 
did not fail me. 

The first night of my captivity has remained in my 
memory. We were in a room that was small but 
warm and sufficiently clean; a table in the centre, a 
few chairs and some straw in a bedstead, constituted 
its sole furniture. Fatigued as he must have been, 
the general insisted on giving up the bed tome. He 


328 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


first of all had my wounds dressed, one of which was 
rather serious, and at my request, he ordered that the 
wounded dragoons should also be seen to. He would 
not allow me to sit up to share his repast, which was 
a very meagre one, if I may judge by the short time 
he spent upon it, and by the share which was brought 
to me by his aide-de-camp. 

A pale, withered personage of high stature and cold 
appearance, with a scar across his face, had just 
entered, This was Beningsen. There were four of them; 
he, Ostermann, and two other generals. They appeared 
extremely preoccupied, but their countenances were 
calm; and their discussion, which was a long one, 
bore the same characteristic. They held council during 
part of the night around the table covered with maps 
which they frequently consulted. Their Field-Marshal 
Kaminski had just left them, ordering at any hazard a 
general retreat upon Ostrolenka. It was evidently 
while seated at this table, that they made up their 
minds to disobey him, to struggle against Napoleon 
and defend themselves. Fate willed it that I should 
be a witness of their decision which very nearly lost 
them, although it did them honour, and succeeded in 
the long run. They knew that I was attached to Na- 
poleon, and several times their glances were turned 
upon me, but however important the least information 
from me would have been, they respected my mis- 
fortune, and did not attempt to take advantage of it, 
either directly or insidiously. 

At two o’clock in the morning Ostermann, before 
resuming his march, gave me a Polish pelisse to wear, 
and entrusted me to the guard of an officer and six 
Cossacks. The first hours of this march were very 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 329 


trying: I spent them on the straw of an open waggon 
in the midst of the Russian columns, travelling slowly 
and exposed to their threatening imprecations. Twenty 
times over I thought they were going to pierce me 
with their bayonets; I even parried some of their 
thrusts. This disagreeable situation, which, however, 
was a distraction from my grief, only came to an end 
on the morning of December 26th when we entered 
Pultusk. I was confined there in a brick house of 
good appearance, one story high, with a room in which 
there was a chimney, a rare thing in this country; 
they left me for some time alone there with my reflec- 
tions, which were sad ones. 

The first moments, however, were not the most 
trying. I knew that Ouvarof, one of Alexander’s aides- 
de-camp, had suffered. the same fate as myself at the 
same time. It was therefore possible to make an 
exchange, which indeed was proposed by Napoleon. 
Being in Pultusk, I felt that I was still within reach 
of my own people; I was soon even to hear the sound 
of their firing, and thus separated from them by sight 
I could at any rate hear them, which was a kind of 
tie. I was listening full of anxiety, and it seemed to 
me that the sounds of war were drawing nearer; evi- 
dently a violent combat was going forward. The guns 
were those of the impetuous Marshal Lannes, who un- 
fortunately suffered a repulse. That had not then hap- 
pened; his first attack had succeeded, the noise of his 
discharges was becoming more distinct; there was even 
a moment in which I thought I could hear around me 
the tumult which precedes a rout. 

I had been left alone in this room for several hours, 
none of the men who guarded me having appeared. 


330 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


For all I knew, in the heat of warfare, in the midst 
of the disorder of a defeat, it was possible that I might 
have been forgotten! I had already opened the window 
and was sounding the chimney, seeking around for 
some hiding place where I might remain concealed 
during the first search, await the sudden irruption of 
our own men, and escape in the midst of the disorder 
of the vanquished. I reckoned on the inhabitants, who 
were Poles and would favour my flight.... A woman 
entered whose moist eyes and compassionate glances 
evinced a lively interest. Some friendly hand had sent 
me, through her, an enormous lcaf of white bread. I 
had had little or nothing to eat for twenty-four hours; 
that was not what troubled me the most, I entreated 
her by my signs and glances to help me in the evasion 
which I was planning, but by her demeanour, and her 
finger placed upon her lip, I could see that we were 
closely watched. I was still in hopes, even after her 
departure, when the Russian officer re-appeared with 
his Cossacks. They once more placed me upon a 
waggon, and I was rapidly conveyed along the high 
road. 

All was over; that very night several leagues distance 
separated me from the battle-field. I could also per- 
ceive that although every possible consideration had 
been ordered to be shown me, there was none the less 
an unremitting watch kept up in this country, which 
was indeed an enemy’s to them. It was carried to 
such a degree, that during our halts in the midst of 
these deserts, if any necessity obliged me to retire to 
a little distance, a Cossack witha naked sword always 
accompanied me. In the same way, during the long 
nights when I was shut in, stretched out on the 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. ay 


straw in the midst of my escort, there was always 
a Cossack standing upright beside me, eyeing every 
movement, his lance in one hand, whilst with the other 
he was making an active onslaught upon the disgust- 
ing vermin with which they are infested, and which I 
had difficulty in keeping off my person. 

Nothing then remained, neither hope nor danger, to 
distract my attention from my misfortune. I ought to 
have resigned myself; instead of which imagination 
augmented it by the weight of my own self-accusations. 
It carried me back oppressed with anxiety, amongst 
my own people: I thought I could hear them re- 
proaching me for my foolish imprudence—as if they 
could have known it when all those who had shared 
it had been either killed or taken; then I would fancy 
that my order-book in which the situation of the army 
was written down, and which had been taken out of 
my pocket by the Kalmucks, had been preserved by 
them, and handed over to some chief, which was not 
likely, and happily was not true. 

Thus I embittered my real distresses by creating 
imaginary ones. This was the more unnecessary, as 
the Emperor at that very moment, far from blaming 
or forsaking me, had said in his bulletin of December 
30th: “That, having fallen into an ambuscade, I had 
“with my own hand killed two of the enemy before 
“surrendering; that he had demanded my release, but 
“that I had just been sent on to St. Petersburg.” 

I had really done better than this, because instead 
of allowing myself to be surprised, I had only yiclded 
after having made an attack and twice charged suc- 
cessfully; but the Emperor was unaware of these 
details, and in those which he imagined he tried to 


332 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


be favourable to me. More than this, he made a point 
of himself informing my father of my mishap, exoner- 
ating me from blame, extenuating it, and praising me 
at the same time. “M. de Ségur,” he wrote, “ your 
“son has been taken prisoner by the Cossacks. He 
“killed two of them with his own hand before surrender- 
“ing, and was only slightly wounded. I demanded 
“his release, but these gentlemen had already sent 
“him off to St. Petersburg, where he will have the 
“pleasure of paying his court to the Emperor. You 
“can easily make Madame de Ségur understand that 
“there is nothing unpleasant in this occurrence, and 
“that she need not alarm herself in the least. Upon 
“which I pray God to have you in His safe and holy 
“keeping.” * 


* AT PULTUSK, DECEMBER 31ST, 1806.” 
“ NAPOLEON ”. 


Had I been informed of this at the time, such be- 
nevolence and paternal care would have spared me 
much anxiety. 


* The original letter is in the National Archives. 


CHAPTER: 2201r 
IN CAPTIVITY. 


LONE though I was with my six savages, I was 

not yet downcast, as my active thoughts could busy 
themselves with the movement of our march; to a certain 
extent with my ill-founded anxiety, and even, I may 
say, my material needs; for, whether the effect of so 
many violent emotions, or simply through my two 
days’ fast, I was attacked by such an insatiable hunger 
that I really do not know what would have become 
of me without the enormous Polish loaf, which, the 
Russian officer to whose care I had been handed at 
Pultusk had not allowed me to leave behind. In any 
other circumstance this loaf would have sufficed me 
for four whole days, whilst I devoured it almost all in 
twenty-four hours; a sight which filled with astonishment 
the Cossacks of my escort. 

The next night we arrived at Rozan. Perhaps the 
fame of my miraculous appetite had reached the ears 
of Colonel the Prince T.... who was lying wounded 
in the town, or perhaps this Russian nobleman thought 
it would be a diversion from the annoyance of his 
wound, but at any rate he invited me to share his 
dinner. I accepted the invitation with a gratitude 


which did not last very long, as he made me pay 
333 


334 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


dearly for this meagre repast, which was interrupted 
by a quarrel. 

We began by addressing reciprocal complimentary 
condolences to each other, I from a fairly well-served 
table, and he from his bed, but suddenly the old Tar- 
tar emerged from the half civilized Russian prince who 
thus addressed me: “When does your despoiler of 
“the world intend to leave off? When will he leave 
“the human race in peace?” Surprised at this unfore- 
seen and inappropriate attack, I answered quickly: 
“From a Russian to a Frenchman, especially in this 
“Poland in which we both find ourselves, such expres- 
“sions are most unbecoming. In any case, even were 
“they applicable, it could only be to the transgressors; 
“and in the present quarrel these were not ourselves, 
“but your Emperor and the King of Prussia.” 

Surprised in his turn, the prince was silent; I arose 
and we parted coldly. Had he continued his invectives, 
he would have been merely brutal; but he was worse 
than that, for his silence was treacherous. It will be seen 
that on his complaint, I was very nearly sent to Siberia. 
He cherished a grudge against me, and represented 
me to his government as a rebellious prisoner, accusing 
me of having in his presence abused his Emperor. 

Whilst he was cogitating to send me on this long 
journey, on my side, better pleased with my reply 
than with his incomplete dinner, I had returned to 
finish my repast at the inn. It was crowded with 
Russian merchants; one of whom planted himself 
in front of me, staring till I was almost out of 
countenance, and accompanying his exclamations with 
the most extraordinary gestures of joy and astonish- 
ment, repeatedly demanding to fill up my glass with 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 335 


the very best they kept in the house, so that at last I 
felt obliged to ask the officer in charge of me the ex- 
planation of this tender and generous extravagance. 
“He professes,” he said, “to recognise you.”—“ How 
“unlikely!” I replied, “I come from Paris, and he from 
“ Astrachan, you say; it is a far cry from one to the 
“ other.” —“ Wait a bit,” resumed the officer, “were you 
“not at Austerlitz? ”—“Certainly I was! ”—*“ Was not 
“your cap kept on by a white handkerchief tied under 
“ your chin?” —* That is true.” —“ Did you not at the end 
“of the battle stretch out your hand to a Cossack to 
“help him out of a frozen lake in which he was 
“drowning? ”—*“ That is also true.”—“ Well; having 
“escaped that danger, then the war, and since then, 
“from the hands of your soldiers who were leading him 
“off, at the expiration of his time of service he became 
“a trader, following your army, and this is he now 
“before you! He recognised you, he said, by your 
“features, which he had not forgotten, and also because 
“your face is bound up in white linen just as it was 
“last year with your pocket-handkerchief.” 

There was no longer any doubt about it; the meeting 
was as extraordinary as it was agreeable, and I felt 
a sincere pleasure in shaking hands with this worthy 
Cossack. 

It must have been on December 28th that we 
arrived early at Ostrolenka, the headquarters of the 
Russian army. I was conveyed into the best room 
of an inn which was crowded with officers like a hive 
of bees. Here I spent the rest of the day, seated at 
one end of the couch, more solitary than ever in the 
midst of this crowd which changed at every moment, 
growing larger and larger, and fatiguing me by a 


336 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


succession of curious gazers who were sometimes noisy, 
sometimes staring stonily, silent- and contemplative. 
They called out to each other to come and look at me, 
interchanging remarks as one would do on some un- 
known extraordinary animal which had just been taken 
in a trap. 

The movement at these headquarters which reminded 
me of our own; the curiosity, however natural, of 
which I was the helpless object, the contrast between 
my present sad inaction, and their free and lively 
enjoyment, strangers and enemies as they were, all 
this stung me to life again, and made my real and 
imaginary sorrows more unbearable than ever. Exposed 
to all this scrutiny, I had nevertheless to bear it 
with as good a grace as I could, and bring pride to 
my aid when at last dejection took the place of annoy- 
ance. How often, during that interminable day, above 
all when some manifestation of compassion took the 
place of this indiscreet curiosity, was I not forced to 
suppress a flood of tears! They seemed on the point 
of mastering me, I had to make such an effort to keep 
them back. I would have paid a moment’s solitude 
with untold gold. I was suffocating, but eventually 
succeeded in concealing my weakness from our enemies. 
It would have been shameful had I given way; fortun- 
ately I was able to contain myself and maintain a brave 
front in spite of so many conflicting emotions. 

The scene changed the next day; I had a more 
lively conflict to sustain, though a less difficult one, for 
this time it was not against myself. I had just been 
placed with an officer of the 13th chasseurs, also a 
prisoner, but so grievously wounded that he could not 
long survive. JI remember that day we were shut up 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 337 


in a billiard-room together with two officers of the 
Russian Government. Colonel Swetchine was one of 
these. They had come there animated with sentiments 
of the most delicate and noble generosity, which 
Swetchine especially was expressing in the most amiable 
and courteous terms, when a little, lean, withered old 
man with a Kalmuck physiognomy, and apparelled in 
the plainest manner, entered abruptly and even rudely, 
without removing his hat, so that I drew myself up as 
stiff as a ramrod without offering to salute him. But 
Swetchine quickly took hold of my arm, whispering: 
“Salute; it is Field-Marshal Kaminski!” I uncovered; 
and the marshal seating himself, at once told his aide-de- 
camp to take paper and pen and hold himself in readiness 
to write. Then without other preliminary he ordered 
me to reply on the spot to the questions which he 
would address to me concerning the French army. I 
refused politely, but he went on without paying any 
attention. Then I reiterated my refusal, adding: “that 
“T valued his esteem too much to make any answer.” 
He shrugged his shoulders, and getting up irritably, 
glared at me in a threatening manner, saying: “you 
“are a prisoner, you will obey!” and turning his back 
upon me, he went out as rudely and hurriedly as he 
had entered. 

I was congratulating myself that this extraordinary 
freak had not been further prolonged, and Swetchine, 
who had seemed rather uneasy, was wondering at its 
tame conclusion, when the aide-de-camp came in again 
with a sheet of paper in his hand. “Here,” he said, 
“are the marshal’s questions. He insists that I should 
“at once take back your written replies.” I was not 
expecting this persistence and grew angry. “Sir,” I 

24 


338 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


said, “you heard my reply to the marshal; I shall add 
“nothing to it, I have no other to make. Respect my 
“position; and do not worry me any more by these 
“unseemly interrogatories which, were you in the 
“same situation, you would yourself consider perfectly 
etiselessu 

The aide-de-camp did not at all resemble his marshal ; 
he was of a more civilized generation. “I pray you 
“to excuse me, sir,” he answered, “I am executing an 
“order; you do not know Marshal Kaminski. As much 
“on my own account as yours, I entreat you to help 
“me, answer just what you please; say whatever you 
“think will best serve your army, whether true or not 
“is of no consequence, so long as I have not to carry 
“back to the marshal a refusal which I dread, and of 
“which you are not in a position as I am to realize 
“the fatal consequences.” Swetchine then joined him, 
entreating me to agree at once: he took my hands in 
his; he told me that I had to do with a man of the olden 
time, who was capable of anything, and whose furious 
bursts of rage were but too well known and feared by 
themselves and the whole of the Russian army. 

This was so true, that it was fated this wretched 
old man should come to a miserable end by the stroke 
of an axe wielded in desperation by one of his own 
peasants whom his brutalities had exasperated. 

“T understand you, gentlemen,” I answered, “and 
“T thank you from the bottom of my heart for your 
“kind intentions, but I cannot possibly follow your 
“advice; as far as concerns the interests of the French 
“army, my inventions might perhaps not suit them; 
“and as for myself, whatever may happen, nothing in 
“face of your army or my own, should ever make me 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 339 


“false to honour, either in reality or in appearances.” 

I was in good company; the aide-de-camp held 
silence, shook my hand, and retired with downcast 
mien. Swetchine was inconsolable, foreseeing some 
outrage, still I did not believe such a thing likely, 
when my six Cossacks entered carrying their lances. 
They had received orders to bind our hands, and that 
very instant to drag us off on foot, in the midst of 
their horses, to the extremity of Russia. 

For two days heavy snow had been falling in 
great flakes without any cessation, and the ground 
was.already covered with it to the depth of a foot. 
The intention was evident; it was too atrocious a 
vengeance. “Let us not submit to it,” I said to my 
companion in misfortune, who was not then prostrated 
by fever; “let us defend ourselves here. Wounded as 
“we are, we may just as well be killed in this room 
“as infallibly to perish in the snow on the high road.” 

Then snatching up whatever was nearest to us, and 
retrenching ourselves behind some benches 1n a corner 
of the room, we defied the Cossacks. They were 
advancing to seize us, when Swetchine, who had been 
almost struck dumb with consternation, threw himself 
between us and them, exclaiming: “That it was an 
“intolerable barbarity, that he could not allow an outrage 
“that would dishonour the Russian name.” At the 
same time he ordered these nomads to go and fetch 
his own covered kibitcka in which he made us seat 
ourselves and set off at once for Byalistock. 

Thus at all hazards, we were generously saved from 
the torture that had been intended for us by this 
odious marshal. We separated from Swetchine with 
tears in our eyes, full of a gratitude which [I still 


340 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


cherish in this world, and which no doubt is also 
cherished in the other world by my poor companion, 
whose wounds carried him off a few days later. 
Swetchine could not have rendered us a greater ser- 
vice, his marshal had relied on the Russian winter as 
a sure means of vengeance. The weather indeed was 
so awful that the officer of our guard and the Cossacks 
themselves could not stand it and were obliged to 
wait three days at Tycoczin. Thence we went through 
Byalistock, all the more rapidly because the person of 
highest rank in the place came to express his wishes 
for my success, and heaped upon me many touching 
proofs of his sympathy with my misfortune. I took 
advantage of this to confide to his generous care my 
poor dying companion, whom he was not able to 
save, but whose last moments were soothed by him. 

On January 6th we crossed the Niemen; we entered 
Grodno; I was in Russia! General Abrewskow was 
in command there. I was taken before him; and his 
frigid reception disgusted me. I was almost naked; 
I had nothing on but my tattered uniform trousers 
which had been despised by the Kalmucks, and that 
Polish half-pelisse, a kind of vest in bad condition, 
which was the only garment that Ostermann had been 
able to procure me. Such a miserable appearance 
was far from being imposing; but, as you make your 
bed, it is said, so must you lie; and as nobody ap- 
peared willing to take the trouble to make mine, I 
felt that I must lend a hand to it myself, and that I 
must meet this harsh reception with an appearance 
of pride which would serve as a mantle to cover my 
wretched and disreputable garments. 

Consequently I complained bitterly of the merciless 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 341 


treatment which wounded, disarmed and beaten as I 
was, I had received. I wrapped myself up in my 
rank, my position near the Emperor, my father’s name 
and the remembrances which he had left at St. Peters- 
burg; adding that having been plundered, I had a 
right to expect from those who represented the Rus- 
sian government that they should come to my help 
with an advance whose repayment would be quite 
sufficiently guaranteed by my signature. This tone 
succeeded. I cannot say that it was very gracefully 
done, but the general did let me have fifty ducats on 
my receipt; I even obtained from him that instead of 
being incarcerated in some prison, I was merely con- 
fined in a decent kind of house belonging to a Jew, 
where, thanks to some gold pieces, I was able once 
more to attire myself suitably. But I was kept in such 
seclusion that the Jew himself was hardly allowed to 
come near me. During the four days that I was there, 
if he came in for a minute in the night, it was with 
such extreme caution that I asked him the reason. I 
then learnt to my great astonishment that I passed for 
a very dangerous person, formerly chosen by Napo- 
leon to excite the whole of Polish Prussia to revolt; 
that since then even as a prisoner I had insulted the 
Emperor Alexander; and that I was the object of strict 
watch and the most stringent orders. 

I became aware at the same time by several pre- 
sents that the Jew mysteriously offered me, such as 
money, various travelling comforts, and other objects, 
that the Lithuanians of this province had friendly feel- 
ings towards me, and that they were as impatient to 
be freed from the Russian yoke, as the Poles of Posen 
and of Warsaw to shake off Prussian domination, This 


342 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


Jew, in fact, did not leave me in doubt as to the in- 
terest which I inspired, or the efforts which might be 
attempted to help me to escape from the hands of the 
Russians. I recognised the impossibility of this, and 
expressed my thanks, but accepted nothing, distrusting 
such an agent, and being equally afraid of exciting, 
uselessly as far as I was concerned, and dangerously 
for these worthy people, their generous imprudence. 
It was well I did so, for I subsequently learnt that the 
Jew had betrayed them! 

This durance vile, as far as my solitary imprison- 
meit was concerned, lasted up to eight o’clock on 
January goth. I do not know if it was by chance, or to 
overthrow the kind intentions of some inhabitants of the 
town, but it was at that hour when night had well 
set in, that an officer and three grenadiers came to 
take me. The cold was keen in the extreme; two 
harnessed sledges were in the street, a soldier got 
into the first with our luggage; I was made to get 
into the second; the officer seated himself by my side; 
placing two grenadiers in front and making them sit 
on our feet, which they crushed with their weight, 
saying that it would keep them warm, but much more 
likely with a view of preventing me from making use 
of mine if occasion offered. The signal was then given 
and the start was effected. 

We travelled at full speed on the way to Smolensk, 
perhaps even to Siberia. We passed the 11th at 
Nowogrobeck, the 12th at Minsk; and on the 13th, at 
Borisow we crossed the Beresina which I gazed upon 
with all my might, thinking only of Charles XII. 

During our rapid six days’ track through the 
frozen snow, the frequent overturnings of our sledges, 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON IL. 343 


and the very short time spent at the relays were 
our sole stoppages. I was only allowed to get out 
at two stations, at the first where I remained alone 
for about five minutes, the poor Lithuanian mistress 
of this miserable post-house, managed to find means 
to approach me. Her signs and her compassionate 
looks had attracted my attention, when she slipped 
into my hand a piece of paper yellowed by age, which 
I quickly opened and found to contain four ducats. 
This was the widow’s mite. I gave her back her poor 
little treasure with tears in my eyes, but kept the old 
bit of paper which I pressed to my heart in an endea- 
vour to make her understand my gratitude, all the value 
which I attached to her generous intention, and the 
remembrance which I should always retain of it. 

Our second stoppage did not last half an hour, it 
was before coming to Borizow, I think, in a burg in 
the midst of a forest. There whilst my officer was 
otherwise occupied, the mistress of the house quickly 
took me into a retired room which was full of Lithuanian 
noblemen of the neighbourhood. Had this gathering 
assembled there by accident, or from anxiety to hear 
news of a war upon which their freedom depended? 
I know not, but I was received as a compatriot. I 
told them that I had left our army powerful and 
victorious. These worthy gentlemen showed some 
excitement; they began by pointing to the forest and 
seemed to be concerting some plan amongst themselves 
to carry me off from my escort; in spite of the fatigues 
and dangers which awaited me, and the bonds in which 
I was held, I was ready to brave all in the hope of 
gaining my freedom, when the Russian officer appeared 
again with his soldiers and I was obliged to follow 


344 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


them. My arrival had been too unforeseen; there had 
been no time for these excellent people, eager and 
enterprising as they were, but their kind intentions 
were evident. I even noticed that they did not attempt 
to conceal their disappointment: defying the Russian 
officer, they overwhelmed me in his presence with marks 
of regret, which he appeared not to perceive, though 
he nevertheless withdrew me in precipitate haste from 
such audacious manifestations. 

The only benefit which accrued to me from this 
incident was that I was a little less bored in the 
company of my four Russians. In the midst of the 
monotonous extent of this frozen land buried under 
heavy snow, and shadowed by dark pine trees which 
seemed to wear the livery of its own mourning, my 
imagination had warmed itself at the spark of hope 
which had been lighted in my breast. I abandoned 
myself complacently to a thousand reveries which bore 
me away from sad reality. From one relay to another 
I dreamt of the possibility of deliverance. In imagin- 
ation I saw myself in the prompt kindly hands of my 
protectors, pressing the sides of their light and fleet- 
footed horses, crossing their vast plains, penetrating 
into their forests, hiding myself in their sanctuaries, 
assuming their disguises, and finally escaping from their 
frontiers in the teeth of a thousand adventures, bringing 
back to the Emperor with my freedom, the proof of 
the support our army would find in the midst of such 
a courageous nobility, and a people so impatient to 
break its bondage. 

These lively illusions vanished one after the other 
as the Lithuanian ground disappeared all too rapidly 
under the advance of our sledges. I had to renounce 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 345 


them altogether on January 15th near Lyadi, where Old 
Russia begins. We were approaching Smolensk, and 
we arrived there at nine o’clock in the night of the 15th 
to the 16th. My officer, Major Petchskin, of whom I can 
only speak in praise, conducted me at once to General 
Count Apraxin, governor of the province. 

I knew him to be a grand nobleman of the polished 
and charming court of the Great Catharine where my 
father had left behind him so many brilliant and pleasing 
recollections; I was wounded, my head was still, en- 
veloped in blood-stained bandages, I was unfortunate, 
I therefore expected at any rate a fitting reception. 
Everything in this residence attested the luxury of 
modern civilisation: a numerous service; warm and 
well-lighted rooms; a large reception-room sumptuously 
furnished, where, glancing round an assemblage of 
army officers of rank I immediately singled out a per- 
sonage whose elevated stature, noble countenance, and 
manners of the highest distinction, recalled my best 
recollections of the relics of our own former Court, and 
all I had heard related of the ered times of Catharine’s 
splendid century. 

This was Count Apraxin himself. But I was greatly 
surprised after having been handed over to him to be 
accosted in the hardest and most imperious tones: 
“It is you, sir, then,” he said, “you who, respecting 
“nothing, have dared to speak evil of our Emperor!” 
I answered, that whilst defending my own, and refusing 
to satisfy unbecoming questions, I had only done my 
duty, and that besides I had not spoken ill of any- 
body. But he, interrupting me, resumed still more 
rudely: “that an unfavourable report had been sent to 
“St. Petersburg, and that I deserved most rigorous 


346 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP | 


“treatment.” Then folding my arms in my indignation 
I answered that I repented of nothing, that there was 
no necessity for false and unlikely pretexts to proceed 
against me, that I was in his hands, and that he could 
do with me what he pleased, as he was the master. 

During this colloquy, poor Petchskin seemed on the 
rack. He threw upon me a glance of commisera- 
tion, and I think that he even ventured to say in 
Russian some words in my favour to the governor. 
The latter, however, for all reply, dismissed him by a 
sign; then with another imperious gesture, opening 
the door of an adjoining room, he ordered me abruptly 
top enter rit 

I think I can still see that little study: it was lighted 
by two wax candles, and some logs of wood were 
burning in a chimney built up in one corner of the 
room. He followed me in the same rough manner; 
but hardly had the door closed upon us than to my 
extreme astonishment, he turned round and opened 
his arms to me: “Now that we are alone,” he said, 
in the most sympathetic voice, “come and embrace 
“me; let us sit down beside the fire and converse 
“together, as I have so often at St. Petersburg con- 
“versed with your father, whose memory I shall always 
“ cherish.” 

The metamorphosis was complete. What a change 
from one side of this little door to the other! In the 
reception room, no doubt before some awkward wit- 
ness, I seemed to hear a hard and haughty Tartar 
chief taking pleasure in threatening a wounded and 
disarmed enemy; here, in the same individual suddenly 
transformed, I encountered the most touching, amiable 
and expansive sympathy, and the delicate attentions 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 347 


and kind consideration of an old and beloved family 
friend. After these preliminaries, with what an easy 
and fascinating grace, with what elegant and noble 
politeness, and the conversational charm of the last 
century, he entered into the most interesting matters: 
first touching on the recollections of a much regretted 
society, and then on the present war, the common 
interests of two Empires and the character of the two 
Emperors; all this in a spirit of conciliation which in 
the general interest, as well as my own, I was careful 
not in any way to oppose. After having thus tried 
me: “We shall understand each other perfectly,” he 
said; “I shall keep you here, I shall not let you go 
“any further; I shall allege your wounds; we will see 
“each other frequently, we have a great deal to talk 
“about; my aide-de-camp’s house shall be your resi- 
“dence; go out little, you will be accompanied by a 
“sergeant, an indispensable formality, but it will be 
“more useful than inconvenient to you. You will want 
“books; you are in Russia, read its history; here is 
“Levesque; but do not display that map which it 
“contains: however reduced and incomplete it may be 
“in this duodecimo edition, it would compromise me; 
“it is ridiculous, but they would say that I had betrayed 
“to you the secrets and the plans of our Empire. 
“That is the reason why I have kept back the volume 
“where a few pages are to be found treating of the 
“history of our Great Catharine; it is forbidden as too 
“modern. I am myself subjected to the same restric- 
“tions; that is how we are situated.” 

During the next fortnight I only went out at night 
to go to his house, he sending for me almost every 
evening. In these interviews we made reciprocal 


348 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


acquaintance with Russia and France, each dwelling 
on the good points of the two nations and their Em- 
perors. As to whether their policy was a policy of 
ambition or not, we agreed that, in any case, war 
between them was contrary to all their interests, 
whilst they would gain everything by a peace in spite 
of England. 

On retiring to my solitude at night, I used to reflect 
on these conversations. Did the governor provoke them 
merely for the pleasure of touching on topics which 
he could not discuss with his compatriots? Did he 
snatch the opportunity of opening his heart to the son 
of one of the former friends of his youth? Or had he 
a more serious end in view? However this might be, 
and whatever might happen, as a matter of principle 
as well as in my special position, I felt sure that 
the expression of my desire for peace was at any rate 
becoming, even if it were futile, coming as it did from 
a prisoner, the son of a minister plenipotentiary, whose 
name was connected with the grandest memories of 
Russia, and the first treaty of commerce granted be- 
tween France and that Empire. 

One evening, it was, I think, February 1st, 1807, that 
I was there playing my part as usual, we were sitting 
in closer converse than ever in this same study where 
so many pleasant hours, (doubly so to a prisoner) had 
been spent by me, when it happened that after a short 
recapitulation of the gist of our former interviews, 
Count Apraxin said to me with even a more friendly 
glance than usual: “My dear Ségur, do you know 
“all the anecdotes relating to your Emperor’s history 
“when he was Consul? There is one which ought to 
“have a special interest for you at this moment. Do 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 349 


“you remember that a short time after his accession 
“to the Consulate, a peace was concluded between 
“himself and the Emperor Paul; that this was through 
“the medium of a Russian officer who had been taken 
“prisoner; that your Consul having sent for him dis- 
“patched him to St. Petersburg; and that from this 
“mission resulted the separation of Russia from the 
“coalition, and the alliance between the Emperor Paul 
“and Bonaparte? Tell me, what do you think of this 
“officer’s position, and of the part which he played in 
“the matter?” 

At this preamble, whose intention it was not difficult 
for me to divine, I was seized with such lively emotion 
that I could hardly restrain it, “ Verily,” I answered, 
“what mission could be a more honourable one, what 
“event more fortunate in any position, but above all in 
“that of a prisoner! That officer must have blessed 
“the captivity that put it in his power to be so useful 
“to two Empires! ”—“ Well, then,” resumed Apraxin, 
taking my hands in his, “you would accept a similar 
“mission; I hardly doubted it after our conversations, 
“and I have possibly paved the way for it.” 

He then explained to me that the Emperor Alexan- 
der’s Council was divided into two parties; the one 
French, the other English: that the first which was for 
peace, although beaten, was still struggling, resting its 
hopes upon the Emperor’s character and inclinations; 
that Apraxin, being of this opinion, had written to 
St. Petersburg, describing me to his friends according 
to the judgment he had formed of me; and that they 
were even then acting with the view of having me 
summoned to that capital. “ When there,” he said, “the 
“Emperor will wish to see you. Do not fear to use 


350 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“the same tone to him that you have used in speaking 
“to me; I know him: be yourself; you will produce 
“the most favourable impression on his mind, and, in all 
“probability, peace will result from it!” 

It was midnight when we separated. I remember 
that at the thought of this happy prospect which was 
opening before me, the agitation which I had restrained 
before Apraxin became so violent that before going 
in, as I was not able to calm myself down, I took a 
rapid walk round the ramparts of the town without 
noticing that there were eighteen degrees of frost. Dur- 
ing this stretch, my imagination travelled much further 
still: to St. Petersburg in place of a probability of Si- 
beria; instead of an inert, wearisome and painful cap- 
tivity (a kind of eclipse, a long and annoying interrup- 
tion of my career), a sudden glimpse of a new destiny 
a hundred times more useful and more brilliant than 
even the position from which I was torn at Nasielsk 
and which I had ever since so blindly regretted! I 
pictured my arrival in the Imperial residence still full 
of the illustrious recollections that my father had left 
behind him. I was touched at the thought of this 
remote paternal protection which was at the same time 
so sweet and so glorious, and not without trepidation 
when I thought of the difficulty of rendering myself 
worthy of it; but after all, a first success predicates 
favourably for a second, and if I had succeeded in Smo- 
lensk, might it not be the same in St. Petersburg? 

I was mistaken; but I was not the only one. From 
that moment, Count Apraxin, giving way to the tender 
and generous sentiments which he felt for me, and 
possibly trusting too much in these hopes, constantly 
showed me in public a friendship and consideration in 


a er ee ee a ee ee 


eS 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 351 


defiance of the consequences and dangers that might 
result to himself. One day he would allow me to 
assist at the reviews of the troops on their march 
through his government; another day from a place of 
honour he would enable me to witness the oriental 
splendour and majestic pomp of the ceremonial of the 
Greek Church. Many times, one of them being a 
public market day, in spite of the excitement of Rus- 
sian patriotism which his government was kindling 
against the French, he was not afraid of being seen 
with me sitting beside him in his sledge, whilst he 
pointed out the whole town on either bank of the 
Borysthenus, as if he were doing the honours of it to me. 

A confidence so extraordinary in this country, and 
so opposed to his previous precautions, augmented my 
own. The letters which he received from St. Peters- 
burg confirmed him in this assurance. All concurred 
to redouble it: the rigour of the season had suspended 
war, the moment for negotiation seemed opportune; 
more than ever I indulged in this delightful hope of 
being able to dispose the mind of the Emperor Alexander 
favourably towards the Emperor Napoleon, and of making 
my appearance at our Imperial headquarters, not only 
as a free man, but as one miraculously transformed 
from a poor, useless, forgotten prisoner into a kind of 
minister of peace between the two Emperors and the 
two greatest empires of the world. 

I was cherishing this dream, when on the morning 
of February 11th, about ten o’clock, someone came 
to summon me to the governor’s with all speed. 1 
hastened there at once, when he opened his arms to 
me and pressed me to his heart, and I saw that his 
eyes were full of tears. “All is lost,” he said, “we 


352 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“have been betrayed!” From some words that he let fall 
I saw that he even suspected the Countess Apraxin, 
who was then at St. Petersburg, and who belonged to 
the opposite camp to his own. However that may be, 
the count’s distress was so moving that it caused me 


to forget my own. “Good heavens!” I exclaimed, “I 
“trust your good intentions on my behalf have not 
“ compromised, you. ”—“I think not,” he answered; “but 


“what causes me real sorrow, is that we must separate. 
“Our adversaries have foreseen everything. I have the 
“strictest orders to send you off at once, whatever be 
“the state of your wounds. You are to go to Vologda, 
“a species of Siberia, towards the White Sea, by way of 
“Vladimir, but without entering it; you are not even 
“to be allowed to go through Moscow. Depart then, 
“if it must be so, to make your preparations for this 
“long journey. The young Prince Moustaphine will 
“convoy you there; I have chosen him for the duty, 
“you may therefore feel sure that you will be pleased 
“with this officer. But I cannot let you go like this; 
“come to dinner to wish me farewell, so that at any 
“rate your last moments here may be spent with me.” 

This dinner, before inconvenient witnesses, when 
both of us were unable to eat anything, was one of 
the most trying moments of my whole life. For some 
time past I had been so accustomed to sudden emotions 
of all kinds, that I had been able to bear myself with 
calmness and resignation on receiving the news of this 
stroke of fate which had destroyed so many brilliant 
illusions; but on this occasion, Count Apraxin’s sorrow, 
his tearful farewell, and all the evidences of tender 
solicitude which he bestowed upon me up to the last 
moment when the sledge was ready to carry me away, 


——— 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. ag 


caused me to break down completely. My heart was 
bursting with suppressed feeling which I was power- 
less to master during his last embrace, and in spite of 
the many Russian glances fixed upon me, I hid my 
eyes on his shouller, and after a last shake of his 
hand, threw myself into the half-covered sledge which 
was waiting for me. My young Russian officer jumped 
in after me, placed two soldiers in front, gave the 
signal, and we set off at a tearing gallop. 

I soon recovered myself, partly owing to the motion 
and fresh air, partly to the high spirits and heartiness 
of Moustaphine, and the little incidents of travel. I 
accepted my fate; renouncing the role of a mediator, 
of which I had been so abruptly divested, and entering 
into that of the traveller, I resolved to get as much 
out of my new situation as I could from that point 
of view. But this was another disappointment: we 
went at too quick a pace, and the snow which con- 
cealed all outlines made everything look alike. As 
for the towns, I saw none of them, our relays being 
posted outside. It was only on the rare apparition of 
a hill with a noticeable stone house on the top of it, 
which was another rarity, that I was able to recognise 
the celebrated Vladimir. 

I know not whether Moustaphine was obeying orders 
transmitted from St. Petersburg, or whether he wished 
to astonish my stranger eyes with the fabulous rapidity 
of Russian sledge travel, or whether it was simply the 
vivacity of youth which glories in doing everything by 
extremes; but during our journey our sledge annihilated 
space. Fields of snow, half buried towns and villages, 
immense forests of black pines, of sad larch trees, of 
pale birches, especially between Jaroslaf and Vologda, 

25 


354 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


were all passed by us, and vanished in the distance in 
the twinkling of an eye. This would have been quite 
natural, and even amusing and suitable enough, in 
spite of my curiosity which was not the question in 
point, if the weather had favoured such a rapid transit; 
but an unlucky thaw had set in after the first hour or 
two. A thousand little rifts had already formed 
themselves in this deep sea of snow, so that every 
minute our sledge, which was travelling at lightning 
speed with our three horses abreast, incessantly spurred 
on by the guide and the soldiers, became engulfed in 
it, and imbedded in the earth, stopping suddenly with 
such a horrible shock that the traces would break, the 
horses be flung back upon their haunches, and ourselves 
frequently turned out, rolling over into the snow, 
bruised and aching in every limb, and with our faces 
torn and bleeding. 

And yet we suffered less from these accidents than 
our soldiers, who being placed in front, were the most 
exposed, and the guide also; but his agility and skill 
always saved him, and his damaged harness would be 
patched up in a second. Then up again immediately, 
sometimes standing on the front part of the sledge, 
sometimes almost on the horses’ cruppers, as eager as 
ever, he seemed to think that his whole duty consisted 
in making us fly through the air at all risks, and at 
breakneck speed from one relay to another. 

As for us, both young, and both soldiers, our vanity 
was concerned in seeing who could keep up the gayest 
demeanour under these trials. During our rapid transit 
we did not fare badly on the provisions with which 
Count Apraxin had generously loaded us; and we 
hardly ever spent three minutes in any of the peasants’ 


[= 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON IL 355 


houses which consist merely of a kind of bakehouse, 
and a room which is almost all stove; they are all 
alike, and too well known to render any description 
necessary. We only stopped at Jaroslaf, a real town. 
I arrived there about nine o’clock at night; and 
was immediately presented to Prince Galitzin, the 
governor of the province, and to the Princess. This 
was a fine and handsome house, a kind of palace, 
where every resource of comfort and even luxury was 
united. I was received in secret by these illustrious 
hosts, alone and without witnesses, but with the forms 
and ceremonies, and extreme politeness of the courts 
of Louis XVI and Catharine I]. After a somewhat 
constrained interview of ten minutes, of which certain 
former family relations were the text, Moustaphine 
brought me back to our hostelry, a brick house built 
in two stories, which was very clean and comfortable. 

There whilst I took my rest sadly and alone, he went 
off gleefully to spend the whole night at a ball; this 
capital fellow would have been very glad to take me 
with him, but I did not envy him in the least. I did 
not feel my fatigue so much at that moment as a kind 
of oppression, as if weighed down by the enormous 
space, each instant becoming greater and greater, that 
cut me off from my return to my own people. I 
thought that my captivity would be a long one, as they 
had spared nothing to send me so far off. And even 
had the government in its anger sent me to Siberia, 
I should have been pitied without being much more 
deserving of pity; it would have been a distinction. I 
should have derived a species of renown from that 
exile, the only one which I could now hope for. I 
should have seen the Ural, Asia with its nomad races, 


356 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


those countries which have been rendered celebrated 
by their ruggedness and the sorrows of exiles; how 
much I should have had to relate! I should have 
suffered for my country, for not having allowed its 
chief to be insulted. That would have been a combat 
in itself. Instead of which I was confined in a neigh- 
bouring region which was almost as distant, by the 
roundabout way I had been sent there; situated on the 
descent to the same Sea of Ice, but in an obscure province 
where there was nothing to strike the imagination. 
It was, alas! after having been so rudely despoiled of 
my diplomatic hopes that I was thus reduced to the 
insignificant position of a prisoner, and forced reluctantly 
to accept the fact that I had no cause of complaint and 
that I was not even interesting. 

My self-love thus put out of countenance, had to 
console itself with the reflection of the sums of money 
that had been spent on the escort of a single captive, 
and the singular precautions which had been judged 
necessary to prevent all communication, as at Smolensk, 
with the other towns and the principal personages of 
this Empire. That is why, no doubt, my interview with 
the Galitzins had been so embarrassed, so short and 
so mysterious. I at any rate found some pleasure in 
persuading myself that this was the case. 

Off again at break of day, still at full speed, we 
passed several hills beyond Jaroslaf which I should 
not have noticed anywhere else. These undulations 
of the soil, however, mark the division between the 
great waters of the south and north of the Russian 
Empire. In a few moments without slackening speed 
we found ourselves at their fall into the White Sea 
and the Sea of Ice. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 357 


We were nearing the place appointed for my exile. 
During the few days of six hours in length and nights 
of eighteen hours’ duration, which had been spent in 
this long and too rapid journey, I had been able only 
to make observations on some exterior objects. I had 
seen that beyond Jaroslaf the country became more 
and more of a desert, and of sombre and severe aspect. 
But in the midst of these more or less wild solitudes, 
I was surprised to find that the men and their 
habits were always the same. All bore the same 
imprint of a universal and eternal uniformity of ser- 
vitude. I had passed through the governments of 
Smolensk, Kalouga, Vladimir and Jaroslaf, and had 
now arrived in that of Vologda; nevertheless from the 
centre to the north of this vast Empire, nothing had 
changed in the rural habitations of this people of serfs, 
neither in their dwellings, their furniture, their food, 
or their apparent characteristics. It was always the 
same primitive immobility of brute customs, of super- 
stitious faith, of uncouth habits; everywhere the same 
conscient submission under the level of the same yoke, 
the same docile and pliant alacrity, the same tactful 
and obedient eagerness, and the same devotion in 
their slavery. These poor people obstinately repeated, 
with no progress whatever, the lives of their fathers 
before them; believing only what they had believed, 
and no truths but old ones, as if ideas were the 
fixtures instead of the furniture of their heads, which 
had been hardened under the double despotism of the 
climate and their masters. 

On February t1gth, after nine days and as many 
nights of this rough journey, towards the middle of 
the day, we at last perceived the domes of the churches 


358 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


of Vologda, and the great brick buildings where the 
governor of this province resides. Moustaphine handed 
me over to him, and on taking leave of me, this 
excellent young man was quite moved; he insisted 
on writing a simple and touching farewell in my pocket- 
book which still remains there, and which I cannot read 
even now without emotion: “Remember me, and God 
grant that we may meet again!” Russian as he was, 
accustomed to the frozen deserts of his country, it went 
to his heart that he should have been forced to conduct, 
and then leave me in this desolate country which was 
certainly not embellished by its governor. He was a 
big, long German, sickly, phlegmatic, and taciturn; 
but if he had some of the disadvantages of his origin, 
he also possessed its advantages: a placid kindness, 
and unvarying gentle simplicity of character, fitting 
in very well with my situation, which he did not seek 
to aggravate, merely leaving me to my own devices 
and to patience. 

The quarters which he selected for me consisted in 
a pretty wooden house of elegant and picturesque 
construction, which stood alone and was the property 
of a rich trader. Like many other houses, it had by 
way of dependencies a kitchen garden and a yard 
enclosed by a wooden wall and by some out-buildings. 
Imagine a house built with big pines, stripped of their 
bark and painted, not set square, but just laid one upon 
the other. These solid walls calked and tarred on the 
outside, are covered inside by a layer of painted 
plaster, furrowed by twenty degrees of heat with in- 
numerable cracks, in which immense hordes of vermin 
find a lodgment. This is their only drawback, and 
in similar houses, the superior classes have means of 


~~ 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 359 


remedying this. The habitation was composed of a 
low-pitched ground-floor of some extent, but of only 
one story; the largest and best part was assigned 
to me. My suite included a narrow vestibule, a 
pretty bed-room, and a well-lighted and fairly well- 
furnished sitting-room. The proprietor himself with 
his wife and family were relegated without ceremony 
to the rest of this ground-floor habitation. 

Everything in the way these two rooms were fur- 
nished was reminiscent of German domestic belongings, 
except the bed, which is not much thought of in Russia, 
where a couch is its frequent substitute. Beyond that 
I only saw three characteristic objects: in the vestibule 
or ante-chamber, there was a narrow circular wooden 
bench, fastened to the wall, where an old sergeant 
who was entrusted with my watch and ward, had to 
sit all day, and sleep at night in his clothes without 
any other covering; in the sitting-room was a great 
stove built up from the floor to the ceiling and lighted 
from outside; this mass of brickwork covered with 
china tiles, filled up an angle whence it warmed at 
the same time all my three rooms; in the opposite 
angle a framed and illuminated picture of St. Nicholas 
was hanging behind a lattice with a night-light con- 
stantly burning in front of it, forming a kind of oratory 
before which the master of the house would come every 
day to cross himself repeatedly with the most pro- 
digious rapidity, evidently invoking curses on his lodger 
with all his might and main. 

I was not brought into any relationship with him 
and his young wife. The latter was very handsome, 
although too stout, which is a common disfigurement 
with persons of her class, arising from the little exer- 


360 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


cise they take and from the kwass, a kind of insipid 
light beer, which these women, through their want of 
occupation, and the thirst produced by heating foods, 
and the temperature in which they live, drink 
continually. 

Such was my young hostess, whom I seldom saw; 
like her fellows she wore on gala days a kind of 
elevated tiara or open crown adorned with pearls, gold, 
and precious stones, whose height, without being as 
great or resembling it in form, recalled to my mind 
the head-dress, which is also of Scandinavian origin, of 
our Cauchoises. These merchants’ wives on holidays 
thus decorate their handsome faces, Persian in contour, 
and with complexions of dazzling whiteness, but un- 
fortunately heightened by a crude mineral rouge, a 
colouring imported from Asia, which I at first 
imagined to be an exaggerated imitation of the style 
in which the ladies of the former French Court used 
to get up their faces. 

It is said that the manners of ancient Russia are to 
be found in this class of traders who were at that time 
serfs of the Crown and much esteemed for their business 
negotiations. In my own elegant domicile, I noted 
nothing of this kind, except in the habitual seclusion 
of the wife, the superstitious ignorance of the hus- 
band, his bushy beard, his Asiatic garb, his daily 
drunkenness and his brutality. A locked door alone 
separated me from this couple. Every evening the 
nocturnal arrival of my host was made known to me 
by a horrible storm of curses, repeated blows, and 
the cries of my hostess: an appalling uproar which 
was soon succeeded by another sound, the filthy and 
disgusting wind-up of the drunken condition in which 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 361 


this Russian of former days regularly returned to his home. 

I do not know if I should judge of the rest of his 
class—this kind of éers-éfat—by this rich trader, but 
such coarse habits were not an exception. I remember 
one day seeing an inhabitant, who was wallowing in 
the mud in a state of drunkenness, picked up at the 
door of the Cathedral, and learning that he was the 
pope who performed the duties of this church. His 
parishioners who had come to his help seemed neither 
astonished nor scandalised at the shameful example 
he set them, which no doubt formed a precedent for 
them to follow. 

I did not, however, notice in the people the resigned 
sadness which is attributed to them. Indeed, I was 
often struck with the alertness and decision in the ex- 
pression of these peasants. The Russians are still what 
they have been made; the day that they are free, they 
will be themselves. Then woe to Europe, if this vast 
empire, more populated and better provided with means 
of communication, does not divide itself. As they are 
indebted to their long superiority over Asia, to their 
superstitious faith, and the concentration of power in a 
single hand, for the most haughty and exclusive of 
national personalities; and as at the same time, their try- 
ing climate makes them easily bear pain, and their 
wretched lives cause them to brave death as easily, 
they will go far some day! 


CHAPTER xxiv. 
MY RETURN. 


REMAINED at Vologda until June 30th, 1807, at 

this date the attitude of the Russians caused us to 
suspect the victory of Friedland: certain semi-avowals 
were rendered complete in my eyes by the officiousness 
of a French émigré, a vagabond of low degree. It 
was the second time that I had met with this man. 
By his insolence I inferred that we had lost at Eylau; 
by his servility that we had conquered at Friedland. 
This was, however, only conjectural, for I received him 
the second time as I had done the first, with a disgust 
which was not encouraging. At last came the day of 
our deliverance, and our farewell to our new allies. I 
parted from them with sincere regret, and well deserved 
gratitude, for I am really glad to repeat, that whether 
victorious or conquered, enemies or allies, always the 
same, I found them the most pleasant, kind, and gener- 
ous of hosts. 

On the orders received from St. Petersburg we were 
divided into several convoys. But I was set apart. I 
was sent by post, or rather by long days’ marches of 
twenty-four hours, with Major Deschamps, who having 
been taken prisoner at Eylau had come to share 


my captivity. Our kibitcka was a covered one, we 
362 


MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 363 


ourselves occupying the back seat, and a /eldyjdger 
the front. The constant attentions of this non-commis- 
sioned officer bore testimony to the kindly instructions 
which he had received. 

Our delight in returning, however, was alloyed by 
the bitter regret that we had not been able to take an 
active part in the glory of our arms, and by the 
fatiguing prospect of the great space to be traversed 
before we could see France again: an enormous dis- 
tance which would be still further increased by the 
slowness of locomotion in summer, compared to the 
swift flight of the sledges in the winter. But we had 
to resign ourselves to the common law, which ordains 
that good should be as long in returning as evil is 
quick in arriving. And this we entirely demonstrated, 
for our return was as tedious as our exile had been 
rapid in its accomplishment. 

As our itinerary was the one by which we had come 
to Vologda, we could not allay our impatience by 
curiosity or interest in the localities we passed through. 
Doubtless their aspect had changed, but at the first 
glance it would appear as if there were little difference 
between the Russia of winter and the Russia of sum- 
mer: in the heart of the country, especially in its 
boreal region, there was always the same monotonous 
uniformity of solitude, the same sad and sombre ver- 
dure of the pines and larches, and the plains of un- 
cultivated and desert sand which took the place of the 
plains of snow. 

The vast expanse of Russia is grand in itself, a 
despairing grandeur increased by the habitations 
which one catches sight of from afar. We might 
have found it otherwise at St. Petersburg and 


364 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


Moscow, or in military stations; but at first we were 
only allowed to go through fields, forests, and villages. 
Our /eld-jéger was ordered to take us outside the 
towns, without entering them, so that we could only 
see Jaroslaf from a distance as we passed it by. We 
could see the disproportionately wide streets which 
were lined with flat and low wooden houses, inter- 
sected by gardens. At that distance they looked like 
an assemblage of huts of savages in a desert. Man 
seemed to have changed the face of nature but little, 
except in the building of a few stone or brick houses, 
and especially a good number of churches capped with 
gilded domes and painted in rich colours; trophies of 
a religion which was at first vanquished and then vic- 
torious. These monuments represent the history of 
the Russian people, its long dependence on Asia, its 
triumph over the Golden Horde* and the victory ob- 
tained by the cross of Christ over the crescent. 

We soon saw Kalouga, which was the first town 
that we entered. With its more numerous habitations 
and the movement of the population, we felt as if we 
were again in a European town, and with the same 
vice around us, if we might judge by the precautions 
of our guide against a throng who surrounded us with 
officious eager hands whose dexterity he evidently 
suspected. 

Between this town and Smolensk, if I remember 
rightly, the hilly soil which is also frequently wooded 
with aromatic trees, and fairly well populated, reminded 
us of that of France. When at last we had reached 
Smolensk, where I had experienced such lively emo- 


*The most powerful of the Mongolian tribes.—Zranslator’s Note. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 365 


tions, I felt that I was in my own country and amongst 
compatriots in its inhabitants; but Count Apraxin was 
absent. The town, animated as it was, seemed then 
empty to me, and I only asked our guide for time to 
address to this governor a few lines of thanks and 
tender regrets. After which we started again, and 
continued our day and night journey by Minsk and 
Vilna, where the Russian headquarters were then in- 
stalled. Their generals received me with open arms, 
Prince Gortchakoff especially was the foremost to display 
the caressing manners which they would seem to have 
imported from Asia. As new allies, this line of conduct 
may have been prescribed by their Emperor, or it may 
have been inspired by the still lively remembrance of my 
father. Thousands of Kalmucks and Baskirs swarmed 
upon the road. My companion, the major, and I 
purchased some of their weapons out of curiosity. We 
did not then think that we should put them to sorry 
use by turning them against each other. 

The best understanding had always existed between 
us, and had I been told that, just as I had gone into 
Russia with a duel hanging over me arranged the 
preceding night, I should leave it with another duel in 
view, I could not possibly have believed it. This 
second quarrel, however, was destined to have a more 
prompt and happy issue than the first. We had just 
thrown ourselves into each other’s arms in our delight 
at having at last crossed the Russian frontier; but 
from that moment left to ourselves in the midst of the 
malevolent distress of the Prussians who had been so 
heavily taxed, pillaged, and humiliated, we found our- 
selves without the necessaries of life. If, as is said, 
hunger brings the wolf to the door, many of us have 


366 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


experienced the truth that it entirely changes a man’s 
character. That of my companion in captivity had been 
up to that moment remarkable for its equable and kindly 
gentleness; it changed suddenly and in this manner: 

On August 8th we were approaching Friedland, 
when pressed by an insatiable hunger, we hesitated in 
sight of a castle and a cottage. He wanted to address 
the lord of the domain to beg a breakfast of him, which 
this Prussian nobleman would probably have refused; 
and I, dreading this humiliation, resisted with all my 
might, dragging my famished companion into a cottage, 
where for a little money we might obtain a probably 
less succulent repast, but at any rate without running 
any risks. Unfortunately, as ill luck would have it, in 
spite of our appetite and the poor woman’s good-will, 
the feast of sour milk and detestable bread which she 
set before us was really not eatable. Thence ensued an 
altercation, in which the major carried away by brute 
instincts, and beside himself with hunger, covered me 
with abuse. I tried to recall him to a sense of his age 
and his superior rank; I invoked his habitual moder- 
ation; but he had lost his head, and instead of apolo- 
gising, he raised his hand against me. 

This was too much; we ran to our waggon where 
three non-commissioned officers who had been exchanged 
like ourselves, were awaiting us. We took away 
without their knowledge the Kalmucks’ wretched sabres, 
and disappearing into the orchard, selected the ground 
for our encounter. This was a narrow clearing 
where stood a pretty isolated cottage which at that 
moment was closed and uninhabited. We had hardly 
divested ourselves of our outer clothing when, in his 
rage, the major threw himself upon me with such 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 367 


impetuosity that I fell back slightly wounded in the 
arm. He was at the same time abusing me with such 
violence, that furious in my turn, I charged him, forced 
him to give way, and cut his wrist with a sabre stroke. 
Falling to the ground backwards, he lay there dis- 
armed and disabled, his mad exasperation still increas- 
ing, calling me an assassin and a scoundrel. He 
only came back to his senses, on seeing me extend 
my hand to raise him up, then run to the neighbouring 
well for water to wash his wound and his clothes, which 
were already covered with the blood that issued freely 
from his wound. Then alone did my poor companion 
resume his real character. As soon as his wounds had 
been dressed as far as was possible, and all traces of blood 
washed off, we returned to our waggon, and got back 
to our places without our non-commissioned officers 
having any cognisance of this adventure. This was 
my battle of Friedland. 

The same day the major’s wounds were more care- 
fully dressed in the town, and the next day, August 
1oth, better friends than ever, we parted from each 
other at Konigsberg. On the 14th I reached Elbing, 
and the roth Berlin, after another quarrel very similar 
to this, with the difference that the wrong was on my 
side, but in which I acquitted myself very much in the 
same manner. Finally, on September 1st, I again saw 
Paris, the Emperor, and my family, to whom alone, 
perhaps, this narrative of my captivity may not appear 
out of place, or altogether wearisome by its length. 


CHAPTER SOSV~ 
IN SPAIN. 


T the end of the year 1807, after my return from 
Vologda, having been made major, that is to 
say lieutenant-colonel, and weary of my inaction at 
Fontainebleau, I received orders to go to Poitiers to 
take the command of a marching regiment. It was 
a temporary agglomeration of recruits from seven 
hussar regiments, such indeed being the too youthful 
and weak composition of a great part of the first army 
which was destined to take possession of old Spain. 
We entered there as allies in March, 1808. The 
division of the advance guard to which I belonged 
stopped at Aranda on the Douro. We were peacefully 
occupying this position at the time of the revolution 
of Aranjuez about March 1oth, when Ferdinand VII 
usurped the throne, and Murat entered Madrid to 
protect the former sovereigns and their overthrown 
favourite against this prince. 

Up to then everything remained apparently peaceful, 
and when Ferdinand, as we have seen, gave himself 
up at Bayonne in the middle of April, he passed 
through our cantonments when I was then in command 
of the furthest one, without causing the least stir on 


his passage; after which we reformed in his rear in 
368 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 369 


Aranda and up to May 2nd, Spain remained inert. 

With regard to the relations of the army with the 
inhabitants, discipline was strictly kept up on our 
side; but we lived as complete strangers the one to 
the other. The difference of habits, of language, of 
character, the constraint of military life, the national 
pride, in revolt at this invasion disguised under the 
form of an alliance and whose aim was becoming 
more and more suspected, all separated us. As for 
religious observances, as we had no orders in that 
respect and made no profession, this fervent Catholic 
land of Spain must have thought we had no religion 
at all; so that what might have been at any rate a 
common tie between the two nations, became an addi- 
tional obstacle to their mutual approach. 

The departure in succession of the princes of the 
reigning family, especially that of ‘the Prince of Peace’ 
rescued from the national vengeance, increased the ge- 
neral irritation. The attitude of these people, which is 
always grave, became sombre; their patience was visibly 
only maintained through astonishment at the docility 
of their princes, through the habit of obedience, anda 
remnant of uncertainiy regarding an event which their 
loyalty and the high opinion they had formed of the 
Emperor made it difficult for them to believe. 

But when doubt was no longer possible; when 
Murat, taking the place of the last Bourbon who had 
left for Bayonne, became head of the government, 
the universal anger only waited for a signal, and the 
Junta of Madrid not daring to give it, the people ot 
that capital took it upon themselves. Such was the 
revolt of May 2nd. It occurred on the occasion of 


the departure of the Infants, Don Antonio and Don 
26 


370 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


Francisco. In the tumult 500 Frenchmen perished, either 
stabbed, or killed while fighting. This first symptom, 
however, was disavowed by all those who had anything 
to lose. Murat quenched this rising of assassins in a 
few hours in the blood of 160 insurgents. The slaughter 
of our men was avenged the following night by the 
military execution of thirty-five of the most guilty; a 
vengeance which promoted hatred, on the ground that 
these wretches had been shot without having had 
Christian preparation for death. 

Napoleon experienced a fallacious joy at the first news 
of this rising, of whose details he was still ignorant, 
and he took advantage of it without sufficiently fearing 
its consequences. This was, however, the first spark of 
a conflagration which was only to be extinguished 
under the ruins of his Empire. It was the first signal 
of a new struggle in which the parts were to be 
reversed; where right was no longer on the side of 
our standards, and all moral powers, justice, public 
faith, individual rights and national pride which had 
been aroused, had turned against us; in which the 
war of a nation for its independence, a similar war to 
that whose impetus had saved us in our own revolu- 
tion, was now to be found on the contrary side. 

The counter shock of this revolt was not long in 
being felt from the Manganarés to the Douro. A week 
after, we were warned of this by several assassinations, 
then by the bribery and desertion of several of our 
conscripts. Soon escorts became necessary; an at- 
mosphere of hatred surrounded us, we felt on the edge 
of a volcano. Badajoz and Oviédo answered on May 
22nd to a signal given by Madrid, Valencia on the 
23rd, Seville on the 26th, Aragon on the 27th, and 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 371 


from Bayonne to Aranjuez nothing remained free ex- 
cept the town in our occupation and the high road. 

There, as in La Vendée in 1793, it was the people 
alone who had begun; the great, the rich, the civil 
authorities, even the Spanish army, all, in fact, who 
calculated and had an interest in order, and understood 
no force but organised force, hesitated and temporised. 

Our marching regiments were then pushed on to 
Madrid, where the detachments dispersed to rejoin 
their numbers. I was thus left without a command, 
at Murat’s disposition. Another throne was awaiting 
him, his disappointment at seeing himself deprived 
of this one, his responsibility in the midst of a general 
insurrection, the climate, the food, more nourishing 
in this country than in our own, had upset his temper 
and his health. Ill and dejected, when pressed to 
go and reign over Naples, his only wish was to leave 
this kingdom. He begged me to inform the Emperor 
that this was his desire. 

The evils of the battle-field are the least of the evils 
of war. These are the sufferings of marches, of camps, 
of privation, want of regular rations, the absence of 
medicaments and hospitals by which armies are deci- 
mated, our own especially, where everything is done 
in haste without sufficient care for the thousand details 
on which the health of the soldier depends; but at that 
date, although the title of general comprises a know- 
ledge of administrative science and prescribes its prac- 
tice, few of our generals knew how to be administrators. 
Amongst the exceptions, I can, however, quote three 
really worthy to be so called: Davout, Saint-Cyr, and 
above all Suchet. It was not such a chief as he who 
commanded us at Aranda. It would be impossible to 


Bye MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


form an idea of the horrible spectacle presented by 
the hospital which had been started in that town for 
our regiments. All was wanting: fresh air, medicaments, 
even beds, for two, and sometimes three, sick and dy- 
ing occupied the same. In the visits which were part 
of my duty, I had contracted the germ of typhus which 
was mowing down the ranks of our young recruits, 
and when towards the middle of June, Murat gave me 
my instructions to rejoin the Emperor, I was more ill 
than he was himself. 

The fever gripped me just as I was getting on horse- 
back at Madrid, whence I was to proceed straight to 
Bayonne. Nevertheless such was the power of duty, 
the habit of braving everything, and my strong desire 
to quit this country, that, putting spurs to my horse 
under a burning sun, I accomplished the 160 leagues 
in fifty and odd hours. Several times, however, the 
illness asserted its sway, three times I fell down un- 
conscious; fortunately this happened at relays where 
I found compatriots or pitiful women. I was hoisted 
up again into my saddle and went on. 

Near Aranda a fresh danger nearly brought my 
mission to an end, as since happened to many 
others. I had noticed on the road when nearing a 
village, traces of a violent struggle, shreds of blood- 
stained uniforms, and at a little distance off, in the 
vines to the left, an assemblage of the enormous vul- 
tures so common in this country. These traces 
and fragments, these birds of evil omen, and their 
eagerness over a prey, the nature of which I could not 
specify, only too plainly pointed to the approach to this 
village as the scene of some horrible murder, and the 
vultures indicated the spot to which the victims had 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. a3 


been dragged. Had I stopped or gone back at the 
sight of this den of assassins I should have been lost 
myself, or failed in my mission; there was no choice for 
me but to go through it at full speed. But at the 
very minute when I was entering this cut-throat place, 
my guide slackened his pace and barred the way against 
me; I threatened him with my sword, a whistle was 
heard, and suddenly a multitude of furious men with 
atrocious countenances, or at any rate I thought them 
so, sprang out from various buildings, surrounded me 
and menaced me with their daggers, uttering cries for 
my death. Having fallen into this trap, I thrust my 
feet more firmly into the stirrups, and was trying to 
choose the weakest point of the circle which I might 
perhaps break through with a desperate rush, when 
from that side an old priest ran out towards me. He 
came up with extended arms, covering me with his 
body, and with a few rapid words, arrested the tumult. 
In a moment the daggers disappeared, the expression 
of their ferocious countenances altered; the murderous 
circle opened, and I was allowed to make my way 
through. 

I only took time to shake hands with the worthy 
priest, endeavouring to express my gratitude by a 
look, and passed on, but this glance and the first 
sight of the village as I galloped through, at once 
explained the cause of the happy issue of this adven- 
ture. It may be remembered that at the time of 
the departure of Ferdinand VII, I had been detached 
in advance of Aranda, on the road which the prince 
was following. It was in this very cantonment and 
at the residence of this very priest. He had recognised 
me; and having been satisfied with our pleasant 


374 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


relations, and remembering how well discipline had 
been observed, he had gratefully come to my help with 
such happy results at the very nick of time. 

After several other accidents, serious enough, but of 
too frequent occurrence in Spain, and in such headlong 
rides, to deserve mention, I arrived at the Imperial 
headquarters, conquered by my illness and utterly 
prostrated. I was just able to enter and hand my 
despatches to the Emperor, expressing to him the 
good wishes of the Grand Duke of Berg. More dead 
than alive, I could not have answered his questions if 
he had waited for my replies; but he saved me the 
trouble, for while enquiring as to the pacific spirit 
and the submission of the Peninsula, it was in sucha 
way that I felt the necessity of saying nothing which 
might shake a security that could only have been 
assumed. He promptly dismissed me, but only just 
in time. Otherwise I should have fallen at his feet 
in a dead faint, which happened outside his door 
before a sentry of the grenadiers who picked me up. 

I was taken to Bayonne to the house of Madame 
de Ravignan, my relative, and mother of the Jesuit 
preacher, then a child, who has since become so cele- 
brated. There I was twice believed to be dead and a 
sheet thrown over my face, but I managed to struggle 
back to life under the unremitting care of the family, and 
was sent back to Paris to complete my convalescence. 

Having returned as an invalid from Bayonne to 
Paris, | had not been able to accompany the Emperor 
to the Congress of Erfurt. On his return he had taken 
me back again and I had entered Biscay in his suite, 
I rejoined him at Vittoria. 

Up to then nothing in Spain seemed to me to have 


—— 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 375 


altered. The green, picturesque, and laborious Biscay 
still intact, seemed a stranger to the passions and the 
general upheaval of the rest of the Peninsula. This 
was the third time I saw it; but on this occasion, 
even more than the first two, I was struck with the 
abrupt dissimilarity of aspects, manners, and character 
which separates the two countries far more than the 
narrow Bidassoa. Our troops astonished me, above 
all those who had come from worthy and comfortable 
Germany. All was unlike our other frontiers. There 
was no shade of similarity, nothing in common, and 
the transition was abrupt, without any beginning of 
fusion of habits, language, and manners. Our soldiers 
felt ill at their ease from the very first frontier village, 
that of Irun. The serious and reserved countenances 
of the inhabitants, their costumes so different from 
ours and so dark in colour, their narrow, winding 
streets with the barred windows of the houses, and 
their closed doors, their little carts of antique form 
with large creaking wheels; a nauseating smell per- 
vading every inhabited place, of which dirt alone could 
be the cause; in fact the whole of this serious, severe, 
alien, and inhospitable aspect had saddened and op- 
pressed their hearts. 

It was still worse beyond Vittoria when the first 
army of invasion informed the second of its defeat, and 
of the horrors which had accompanied it. Sadness was 
then changed into indignation, which was perhaps too 
evidently manifested in the light of subsequent conse- 
quences. Our French army indeed had realised only 
too well the atrocities of monkish anger and the hatred 
and vengeance which fill the soul of an insulted 
Spaniard. 


376 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


It was related how these people had preluded their 
general insurrection with fearful massacres of their own 
generals; how their priests had with lies set them upon 
our companions of the war. The pleasant manners and 
the personal charms of the new king might have won 
them over, so they represented him as blind of one 
eye, a mean drunkard of the most repulsive aspect. 
Then using heaven as a lever to raise the earth, they 
had inflamed these superstitious minds by pretended 
miracles: they declared that a thunder-bolt had extin- 
guished the sacred fire which burnt before their Virgin 
of Battles, they said they had seen the images of the 
saints weep. [From that time and everywhere, the most 
Jortunate of our sick, our laggards, our orderly officers 
surprised and seized, had been slaughtered on the spot; 
whilst others had been thrown into cauldrons of boiling 
water, and some even sawn between planks or burnt 
at a slow fire. Amongst a thousand victims of such 
atrocities our soldiers mentioned one of their own most 
excellent and humane generals, whom they had found 
still alive, but fastened by the neck to one of the trees 
on the road, with his four limbs sawn off by these 
monsters. 

Overcome with indignation at these narratives our 
armies issued forth in raging fury. The Spanish army, 
with the exception of their regular troops, everywhere 
about the same, were principally composed of these 
ferocious insurgents; they were much less prepared for 
the defensive than for the offensive. Their principal 
thought had been to prevent our flight; intoxicated by 
the remembrance of Baylen, by national pride and 
monkish predictions, they were taking with them as 
much iron to enchain us, as to fight with. Even their 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 37:7. 


smugglers, formed into a regiment, carried after them 
great masses of merchandise with which they intended to 
inundate France, already conquered in their eyes. We 
have seen how, from their left to their right, a few 
hours had been enough for us to change all this oriental 
braggadocio into a contemptible flight. For, like the 
Turks, whose defects and qualities they possessed, these 
people can only defend themselves steadily from behind 
walls; they do not hold their ground in the open, 
feeling no shame in turning their backs, scattering 
themselves, and running to hide in their mountains. 
However, as they have no great attachment for their 
miserable habitations, and live upon very little, if they 
take flight and find refuge in their rocks, they do not 
lose heart and abandon their cause, but they go there 
to multiply the warfare, to transform it into a succes- 
sion of incessant struggles on the enemy’s flank and 
rear, which are all traps, surprises, and assassinations. 
It is true that then in their turn surprised and seized, 
they are able to die proudly like martyrs, without 
condescending to murmur or to implore grace. 

It also happened that in their defeats, many of them, 
escaping by a thousand by-ways would go great dis- 
tances to rejoin their flag; this was why their armies, 
constantly scattered, would as constantly reappear in 
almost equal numbers, on new fields of battle. Later 
still, others got into the habit of being taken and 
retaken, and compounding with their conscience: 
they would take the oath to the new monarch, simply 
to gain time and an opportunity of deserting with 
the arms which the king would have given them, and 
which they would faithfully take back with them to 
serve their own worthy cause. 


378 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


A great people! But destitute of great men during 
six years of events the most fitted to create them. It 
must, however, be allowed that in this country it was 
not then so very easy to be a great man: that could 
only have happened by a series of victories which would 
have been impossible for a mass of insurgents confront- 
ing an experienced army like our own; so that, in 
spite of the aid of all kinds lavished by the English, 
the constant efforts of these people produced nothing 
more than some rather remarkable partisan chiefs with- 
out ever being able to create a general. To this, one 
might add other considerations; such as the configur- 
ation of the country, its parcelling out into provinces, 
animated by different local spirit and interests; whence 
a multitude of chiefs, each of whom exalted his least 
successes in such hyperbolical language, that it would 
be difficult to say whether Fame could have found 
other voices capable of overpowering these, and pro- 
claiming actions of less imaginary grandeur. 

Beyond Brivesca I was not in a position to judge of 
the country, because at the time when the advance 
guard of Soult and of Bessieres were overwhelming the 
army of the centre at Burgos in a first onrush, I had 
been sent from one to the other of these two towns 
at full gallop during the night. By chance I still have 
at hand the order dictated and signed by the Emperor. 
blere jit as< 

“Start at midnight with my personal attendants so as 
“to arrive at Burgos before five o’clock in the morning, 
“and establish me there. My intention is to leave from 
“here at two o’clock in the morning and to arrive at 
“seven at Burgos. If the army and the marshal are at 
“Burgos, I shall go straight to my headquarters but 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 379 


“imcognito,; if on the contrary there is any disorder, I 
“shall go out of the town. You must inform Marshal 
“Soult so that he may be there on my arrival, also 
“Marshal Bessieres if he is still in the town. But if he 
“is in pursuit of the enemy, he must on no account be 
“disturbed. All my chasseurs and dragoons who have 
“been here for some time will start on the march at 
“three o’clock to-morrow morning, for Burgos. I shall 
“arrive there in strict privacy. But as long as I can 
“manage my business, I do not care! Leave, yourself, 
“at midnight, so that you can be at Burgos by day- 
“break. I imagine that you will get there at four 
“o’clock, or five o'clock at the latest. I shall arrive at 
“seven. I wish to find, about a league from the 
“town, someone to show me the way. On which I pray 
“God to have you in His good and holy keeping. 

“Cubo, this roth November, 1808, 

7 o'clock of the evening 
“ NAPOLEON.” 


This order which I did not receive till after midnight 
could not be obeyed by the Emperor’s personal atten- 
dants. But leaving everything behind me, and going 
post haste, saddle and bridle, through the very darkest 
night, I reached Burgos towards six o’clock, at day- 
break. In the early light I could discern the high 
road and the neighbouring fields covered with the 
Spaniards who had been killed the night before; monks 
lying there in their frocks with weapons in their hands, 
horses struck down, and many of the beautiful sporting 
dogs, so frequently seen in this country, either lying 
dead beside their masters, or howling as they sought 
those whom they had lost. 


380 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


As for Burgos itself, taken by force and almost 
entirely deserted by its inhabitants, it was given up 
to the most active pillage: the doors of the houses 
were battered in, the streets were strewn with torn 
clothing, and broken household utensils and furniture. 
Our soldiers were prowling about, bent double, some 
under masses of valuable effects, others under sacks 
of guadruples; * all were so eager at this sport, that it 
was almost an impossibility to collect a battalion to 
take possession of the Archbishop’s palace, and establish 
the Imperial quarters there. 

I had not yet placed the first posts when I saw the 
Emperor himself arrive, accompanied only by his 
Mameluke and Savary. He had galloped all night 
as I had done, and arrived at full speed covered 
with mud, and dying of hunger, cold, and fatigue. 
The archiepiscopal palace had been no better treated 
than the rest of the town: the rooms intended for 
the Emperor were still in disorder, soiled by burst 
bottles and spilt wine, with the furniture all battered; 
we tried to set things a little straight, then Savary 
went off with Rustan to get some food ready, leaving 
me alone with the Emperor, who helped me to light 
his fire. 

I was doing what I could by the light of a single 
candle, when Napoleon, whose delicate sense of smell 
was offended by the odour of the broken viands, 
called me to open the window near which he had sat 
down. I luckily ran up to pull back the curtain; 
when what was our surprise! Behind these curtains 
three Spaniards, fully armed, upright and motionless, 


* A Spanish gold coin worth about 85 francs, or £3 8s. 
Translator’s Note. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 381 


were pressed up as close as they could be against the 
shutters, either with a view to escape from our plun- 
derers or having come there to plunder themselves, 
a “practice of which their army was accused as well 
as ours. During the ten minutes that Napoleon, sus- 
pecting nothing, had been there alone with me, some- 
times seated, and sometimes leaning over the fire-place 
with his back towards them, they could a dozen times 
over with a single blow have put an end to the war. 
But, fortunately, these were not insurgents, but soldiers 
of line regiments. The wretched creatures when they 
found themselves discovered were petrified with fright 
and glanced towards us terror-stricken. The Emperor 
never even thought of putting a hand to his side arms, 
but smiled with a gesture of pity; I disarmed them 
and handed them over to our soldiers; then having 
assured myself that no other enemy was hidden in this 
chamber and its neighbourhood, I made haste to go 
and reconnoitre, with even more care than usual, the 
rest of this vast building. 

It was like an entire town, the celebrated cathedral 
and its dependencies being united to the Archbishop’s 
palace. I was transfixed with admiration at the aspect 
of this magnificent church when I thought I saw human 
shadows gliding about at the top of the enormous 
pillars. This recalled me to the duty which I had 
come to fulfil, and having soon discovered an entrance 
in the base of one of these gigantic blocks, I quickly 
reached the top by the winding staircase which it con- 
tained. This staircase led to a rotunda. I was quite 
out of breath when, emerging into this cupola and 
raising my eyes, I found myself surrounded by twenty 
of the enemy’s officers ranged in a circle, and seated 


382 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


in silence against the wall. At sight of me a murmur 
arose which was half supplicating and half threaten- 
ing; several swords even were drawn, and perhaps 
I should have been sacrificed to their safety, if I had 
not had the happy idea of promptly calling out “ Help! 
“help, grenadiers!” and ordering them to surrender 
immediately. They did so after a moment’s hesitation, 
luckily for themselves as well as for me, for I should 
have been avenged at the selfsame instant, as some 
of ours, having seen me disappear in the pillar, had at 
once followed me up. 

The next day and the day after that, pillage con- 
tinued all over the town. Our own rations had failed, 
and none of the inhabitants being there to supply us, 
and our pressing need of food serving as a pretext, 
nothing escaped this destruction, which was renewed 
with the successive arrival of the different corps. The 
chiefs by way of shutting their eyes to it, justified 
themselves by the Spanish atrocities which had been 
perpetrated against us. It was thought necessary to 
strike terror; and from the Ebro to Madrid it was one 
vast military execution. The soldier was allowed to 
enjoy this vengeance and to take his fill. 

The contagion spread even to the Imperial head- 
quarters in Burgos; it could not be stopped until after 
the Emperor had made a severe example by way of 
a warning. I remarked one curious fact in the midst 
of this disorder. I had been told that a troop of pil- 
lagers had been seen to enter the cathedral, and hastened 
there at once; but it was unnecessary, the imposing 
majesty of the sacred building had sufficed. Before its 
grandeur and beauty, the astonished marauders, seized 
with sudden respect, remained confounded. They were 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 383 


in positive admiration. Their audacity had been turned 
into humility, and anyone witnessing their silent con- 
templation and abashed demeanour as they retired, 
would have thought that at the unforeseen aspect of 
the sublime immensity, crushed by their own nothing- 
ness, they had felt themselves transported into the 
presence of God Himself! 

It happened differently in Lerma where I was sent 
about November 2oth. This town is built on the in- 
cline of a small hill, a kind of truncated cone whose 
table-land is surmounted by an abbey and a palace, 
with their esplanade. Everything was sacked during 
the first night, and half the town was set on fire; I 
was powerless to do anything, having been almost 
asphyxiated by a brasier which had been left in my 
room all night. 

Besides, what can be done in such times of universal 
delirium? It is well known that a long succession 
of victories ruins the soldier as well as the general; 
that too frequent forced marches are fatal to discipline; 
that the irritation produced by hunger and fatigue, and 
the darkness in which they arrive at their cantonments 
at night, lead and embolden to every excess, also the 
absence of distributions which are impossible to be 
made in such haste; so that there arises each night 
for the soldiers, the need of scattering themselves 
abroad to provide for their own wants, and as they 
receive no money, the habit of helping themselves to 
everything. Why then be astonished at these disor- 
ders? Our soldiers considered themselves in the rigft. 
After the miracles of Jena and Friedland they had 
gone over 500 leagues at double quick march, and had 
conquered on their arrival. Their life was one long 


384 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


superhuman assault against fatigue and danger; in 
which pillage seemed their right as one of the fruits 
of victory. To contest it would have been to dis- 
hearten them. Besides, by what right could so much 
be expected from them, if nothing was tolerated? 
The inhabitants, however, had taken care not to wait 
for our arrival. Their flight was of itself a sufficient 
proof that they made common cause with their army, 
and much worse. It had been said that during their 
first success, they and even their womenkind had 
disputed with each other the horrible enjoyment of 
putting the finishing stroke to our sick and wounded. 
Frightful details were added which were only too 
true: how some had been deprived of life by a series 
of odious mutilations, others by countless stabs with 
scissors, stuck into their eyes and into the most sen- 
sitive parts of their bodies. It was known that at 
Valencia 200 French who had been inhabitants of the 
town for years and had become almost naturalised, 
had been martyrised; and it was reported that there 
as elsewhere the signal for these massacres had been 
given by monks. To this was due the excesses of 
our men, followed by sacrilegious profanations of 
which Lerma offered the first and most terrible exam- 
ple; hence this long orgie of forty-eight hours, and 
these conflagrations, caused by wine, which they wanted 
to extinguish with wine. Hence also, on this elevated 
table-land, in view of these people, religious to fana- 
ticism, who were contemplating the sight from their 
sheltering rocks, the spectacle of our soldiers trebly 
intoxicated by wine, mirth and anger, going round 
their fires in a procession with tapers in their hands, 
travestied in the frocks of these monks whose sacred 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 385 


chants they parodied by the least edifying of barrack- 
room songs. 

The Emperor did not witness these excesses which 
he would not have tolerated. He had even tried by 
a proclamation to recall the populations to their own 
centres, and to their hearths, and to rally them to his 
Cause, giving them a month to come back. He pro- 
mised them his protection at this price, with the ex- 
ception of several grandees who were to bear the whole 
brunt of his anger. He left Burgos November 23rd, 
and did not stop that day until he had reached Aranda. 
Here, of all the inhabitants the Alcalde alone had re- 
mained. He declared that the resources of the sur- 
rounding country would admit of his feeding 80,000 
men for a whole month. But here as at Burgos there 
reigned the same pillage and disorder. Every door, 
every bed, every piece of furniture in the houses, either 
adorned the bivouacs or fed the camp fires of the 
centre of our army united around this town. 

On the next day, the 29th, Napoleon himself pushing 
straight on to Madrid by Sommo-Sierra, with Victor 
and his own guard, had no more pressing care than to 
precede the arrival of the Spanish remainders of 
Tudela, and promptly to astonish the Peninsula and 
Europe by the news of his entry into the capital. 

Consequently I received the order to go and wait 
for him on November 2g9th* at Boceguillas. This 
is a rather pretty village about three leagues from 
Sommo-Sierra, a strong position of which the approaches 
and the defile were occupied by the enemy’s reserve. 
On that day the Polish light horse of our guard formed 


* 1808, 
27 


386 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


the advanced guard. They drove the Spanish from 
Carajas, another village situated at the entrance of the 
gorge of Sommo-Sierra. This regiment took up its 
position there and thus protected the Imperial quarters. 

The Emperor arrived at Boceguillas at the end of 
the same day. At that moment endeavours were being 
made to extinguish a fire which had caught to a 
house situated on the village market place. It happened 
to be the only one which could accommodate him. 
During the night an icy fog, and the smell of the con- 
flagration of the previous day, together with his own 
impatience for the morrow’s fight, agitated him and he 
slept badly. The smell of fire at last drove him out 
of his quarter into his tent, whence he came out several 
times to warm himself at our camp fires. This caused 
him to get too early into the saddle, directly the 
morning report was to hand, and as soon as he 
thought Victor’s infantry was at the head ready to 
engage battle on the mountain, 


CLAPPER XXVE 
SOMMO-SIERRA. I AM WOUNDED, 


OMMO-SIERRA was the last obstacle to be con- 
quered before arriving at Madrid. The remains 
of Castanos having escaped Lannes at the front, and 
Marshal Ney in their rout, were dispersing behind this 
screen, which the Emperor was anxious to break through, 
so that he hastened the march. Nevertheless, having 
arrived about eleven o’clock abreast of Carajas, and 
finding that Victor’s infantry was not ready, nor the 
enemy sufficiently reconnoitred, he drew up on a hill 
to the left of the road, where he breakfasted. 

There Major Lejeune of the Engineers, one of Berthier’s 
aides-de-camp and well known since as a painter, by 
his remarkable picture of this affair, came to give him 
an account of the position of the enemy’s corps and an- 
nounced that Victor’s skirmishers were already engaged. 

In front of us, in fact, this marshal’s advance guard 
could be perceived entering a defile on the high road, 
which was rendered still more narrow by two steep 
ridges. At the bottom of this gorge, on the side to 
the right of the road was an enormous rock. This 
rock defined and concealed the foot of another slope, 
which was steep though short, and the last that had 


to be scaled in order to reach the top of this plateau 
387 


388 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


more celebrated than it deserves to be. It was a 
blessed, almost sacred position, and believed to be invin- 
cible. The summit was crowned by a redoubt with 
sixteen guns, defended by 12,000 Spaniards who were 
in position in two lines between the rocks, and com- 
manded by Brigadier-General Saint-Juan. A cloud of 
their skirmishers was extended to their front on the 
spurs to right and left, whence they directed their 
fire down into the defile. 

Victor’s main body was numerous, compact, and sup- 
ported by the Imperial Guard. They had fewer men 
on their side, but they had the advantage of locality, 
and were animated by such hatred to us, and such faith 
and confidence in their position, that even after it had 
played them false, still believing it sufficiently strong 
of itself to have needed no defence, they declared 
that there had been treachery at work, and became 
guilty, as will be seen, of an abominable murder. 

The Emperor in his astonishment that they should 
have dared to await him, and growing more and more 
impatient, made us remount. Distancing the infantry 
he ventured too soon into this gorge, where the 
enemy’s fire arrested his progress at about 400 metres 
distance from the right of their line of battle. Then 
taking up a position in a bend to the left of the road, 
he let our foot soldiers advance. But either con- 
temptuous of these insurgents, or annoyed at having so 
uselessly exposed himself, and the fog hiding the 
obstacle from him, in his growing irritation, he 
ordered his escort squadron to advance, charge, and 
carry the position without waiting any longer. This 
squadron was composed of eighty Polish light horse, 
commanded by seven officers: MM. Korjietulski, Ru- 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 389 


dowski, Dziewanowski, Rowiczki, Krazinski, and Nie- 
golewski. At their head went also Generals Montbrun 
and Piré, the Prince of Neuchatel’s aide-de-camp. At 
the same time he ordered the gth regiment of light 
infantry to scale the spur on the right, the 24th that 
on the left, and he pushed the g6th forwards on the 
high road. 

This well-planned infantry attack needed time; for 
there is often some hesitation at the outset of a man- 
ceuvre of this kind when the features of the ground, 
varying at each fresh step, have to be conquered as 
well as the enemy. Their chiefs do not hold the united 
bodies massed under their hand; the exsemdle fails; 
the one body waits for the other; and the combat 
broken up into insignificant skirmishes, languishes with- 
out coming to an issue. 

It was beginning in this way when the Emperor 
was informed that the charge of his escort squadron 
had been suddenly checked; that it had come across 
an insurmountable obstacle which it would be im- 
possible to carry from the front. It could indeed only be 
overcome by a flank movement and by infantry only. 
But there was no time to be lost, Napoleon had placed 
himself in a dilemma; he would not retreat in sight 
of his troops, though from the top of the crest above 
him, the bullets were raining round his head. It was, of 
course the duty of the Poles as guards to protect his 
person from this danger; nevertheless, as Piré and 
Montbrun were ignorant of the Emperor’s peril, they 
acted rightly; and we shall soon see that from a mili- 
tary point of view their charge, ill-timed at the moment, 
was impossible. 

But, on hearing this word, the Emperor who was 


390 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


in a fever of impatience, became furious. Violently 
striking the pommel of his saddle he exclaimed: * How, 
“impossible? I do not know the word! There should 
“not be anything impossible for my Poles!” whereupon 
Walther, the general in command of the guard, endea- 
vouring to calm him, replied: “ Sire, a moment’s patience, 
“T pray; the infantry is already ascending on the flanks, 
“both wings of the enemy will be encountered on level 
“ground, and then a charge from the centre will finish 
“him; he will not have lost anything by waiting.” The 
Emperor would not listen to him, and in the midst of 
his explosion of anger, I could hear these exclamations: 
“Impossible! What! My guards stopped by peasants! 
“by armed bands!” 

The enemy’s bullets were falling more thickly every 
moment, and by a natural movement I came forwards 
to place myself between them and Napoleon, watching 
him, in fear every instant lest he should be struck, 
growing excited by his danger, and too much roused 
up by his words, for indeed Walther was in the right. 
But he, seeing in my glance a reflection of his own 
impatience, replied as if I had addressed him: * Yes, yes; 
“go you, Segur! Go at once, make my Poles charge, 
“make them take everything, or bring me back 
“ prisoners |” 

Speeding off through the moving forest of our 
bayonets which bristled on the road, and which I had 
even to thrust aside not to be struck by them as I 
rushed by at a gallop, I arrived at the foot of the 
rock under shelter of which the Polish squadron was 
drawn up alone, in front of the infantry. “Comman- 
dant,” I cried to Korjietulski, “the Emperor orders 
“us to charge home, and at once!” Upon which, 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 391 


Montbrun made an exclamation and a gesture of 
astonishment without venturing to contradict me; but 
Piré answered: “It is impossible!”—“The Emperor 
“has been told that,” I retorted, “and he will not 
“hear of it.”— “Very well,” resumed Piré, “come and 
“see for yourself; the devil in person, pretty well used 
“to fire as he must be, could hardly stand that!” 

Then to prove the truth of his words, advanc- 
ing beyond the rock through a hail of bullets which 
rained down upon our equipments, he pointed out to 
me the steep slope of the road up to this amphitheatre 
bristling with rocks, the redoubt of sixteen guns which 
crowned it, and twenty battalions deployed in such a 
manner as to converge their front and flank fire on 
an attack which could only be effected in column 
and along the road. 

This made 40,000 discharges of musketry and more 
than 4o discharges of grape shot to be received 
in a minute. Without doubt nothing could be more 
convincing, but the order had been too imperative, it 
was impossible to go back upon it. “It does not 
“matter,” I exclaimed; “the Emperor is there and he in- 
“sists on the thing being settled. Come, Commandant, the 
“honour will be ours, advance by squads, and forwards! ” 

This colloquy carried on aloud would have intimidated 
any other troops who would have hesitated ; but there was 
not a sign of this with these heroic Poles: [had hardly had 
time to draw my sword from the scabbard, before they 
had begun their charge in a column from this road. 

We charged at full speed, I was about ten paces 
in front with my head bent down, uttering our war- 
cry by way of distracting my attention from the din 
of the enemy’s fire which was all breaking out at 


392 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


once, and the infernal hiss of their bullets and grape 
shot. Reckoning on the rapidity of our impetuous 
attack, JI was hoping that in their astonishment at 
our audacity the enemy would aim badly; that we 
should have time to dash into the midst of their guns 
and bayonets and throw them into disorder. But they 
aimed only too well! 

Very soon, in spite of our clamour and the detonation 
of so many arms, I could distinguish behind me the 
sound of smart reports followed by groans, with the 
thud of falling men and horses, which made me foresee 
defeat. Our warlike cries were becoming lost in the 
cries of pain of the unfortunate Poles; I did not dare 
to turn my head, fearing that the sad spectacle would 
cause me to give up. I knew that I had been myself 
struck several times; different bullets had gone through 
my hat, the collar of my cloak, and all my garments, 
but so far had hardly bruised me. One had dinted the 
scabbard of my sword on my left side, for on both 
flanks, as at our head, the more we advanced, the 
more we were assailed by the enemy’s fire. A grape 
shot ball then grazed me on the heart which was left 
almost denuded of covering. I took counsel with 
myself; but quickly realising that such a wound must 
be either mortal or insignificant, as I did not feel like 
fainting, I went on. (It took me, however, six months 
to get over it.) Almost at the same moment a bullet 
catching me on the right side and taking away my breath 
forced me to stop and look around and behind me. 

I was alone within thirty paces of the redoubt. I 
had outstripped two battalions of the enemy, placed 
obliquely, behind a ravine on our right flank. One 
officer alone was following me, Rudowski, I believe, 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 393 


a colossus, like most of these picked men. He was still 
on horseback, but wounded to death, staggering, and 
on the point of falling off with his face to the enemy. 
Distance and the rocks prevented my seeing anything 
more. I made a vain attempt to turn back my horse, 
which was itself wounded; but the Spaniards advanced 
to seize me, shouting cries of victory. Then I jumped 
to the ground trying to collect what strength remained 
to me, and while retreating to shelter myself from 
their fire needlessly directed against a solitary man, I 
pressed as close as possible to the rocks to the right 
of the road. A cruel retreat! first, whilst rapidly 
passing by Rudowski, the poor fellow in his death 
agony almost fell upon me; after which I had to leap 
over, or avoid our unfortunate comrades, either dead 
or in the agonies of death, who were lying on this 
glorious but most sad field of battle. 

Nearly the whole of the squadron was laid low. Out of 
six other officers, three more were either killed out- 
right or mortally wounded: these were the lieutenants 
Rowiczki, Rrzyzanowski and Captain Dziewanowski. 
The three others, Lieutenant and Captain Niegolewski 
and Krazinski, and Major Korjietulski, were wounded. 
Forty non-commissioned officers and lancers, killed or 
mortally wounded, were lying on the ground. Twelve 
others were wounded but less seriously; twenty alone 
had escaped this massacre safe and sound. These had 
assisted their wounded to retire, so that, over the whole 
of the remaining ground covered by our charge I only 
saw one trumpeter left standing, motionless in the midst 
of the firing which was still going on. The poor child 
was weeping for his squadron, and over one of his 
officers stretched upon the ground, whose horse he 


394 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


was holding, and which he helped me to mount. I 
was then suffering a great deal: I could no longer 
drag myself along, and it was impossible to stop under 
this rain of bullets and grape shot, so he led me to 
the foot of the sheltering rock whence our brave Poles 
had dashed forth so full of life and ardour which 
death alone could have extinguished. The advanced 
guards of our infantry had stopped behind. This last jour- 
ney down a rapid descent at a foot pace, was terribly 
painful, and appeared to me of interminable length! 

Having at last reached our men, and being no longer 
held up by the danger, I fell into the arms of the 
grenadiers of the g6th. Colonel de la Grange happened 
to be there, and I owe to him the first care bestowed 
upon me, and the preservation of my sword which up 
to that moment I had had sufficient strength to retain. 

It was he who caused me to be carried off directly 
by four grenadiers. A few paces off, Savary met me 
on his way to arrange the attack; he made an exclama- 
tion of pity, but, still under the influence of that fiery 
ardour without which such self-sacrifice could not exist, 
I answered: “Do not think of me, but forwards, for- 
“wards! and may our infantry avenge our Poles on 
“these wretches!” 

A little further on, as we passed near the Emperor, 
the little group which we formed attracted his attention 
and he sent to inquire. “Ah! my poor Ségur!” he 
exclaimed, “Yvan, go off at once and save him for 
me!” It was from Yvan himself that I heard this. Yvan 
hastened up, and by the help of some grenadiers was 
carrying me away, when another Spanish bullet aimed 
from the crest of the defile, picked me out in the 
midst of all the heads which were bending over and 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 395 


covering me, just grazing without wounding them, and 
entered my right thigh. 

Surprised at the relentless ill-luck which seemed to 
pursue me, they stopped short. “ Oh, the poor fellow!” 
said Yvan, “here is his leg broken now!” — “No, no,” 
I said, as I moved it; “ but go quickly and get me out 
of this, for it looks like one of my most unlucky days!” 
The bullet in fact after running round the bone with- 
out breaking it, had pursued its way to the other 
side where it remained. 

This rather remarkable instance of bad fortune was 
at that moment followed by one of quite a contrary 
nature. Turenne, an officer on the Emperor’s staff, on 
perceiving me had hastened to come to my help, which 
proved a very fortunate thing for himself; for hardly 
had he got off his horse, before the saddle was demol- 
ished by a cannon-ball. Resuming their way, about a 
hundred paces more to the rear, they set me down by 
the side of the road, sheltered by a rock, and now 
began the most unpleasant part of the business, that 
of sounding the wounds. 

Yvan, accustomed as he was to this kind of thing, 
while taking off my clothes, which were torn and 
literally riddled with shots, as in a military execution, 
could not restrain the expression of his astonishment. 
My contusions, the large wound which was over my 
heart, and that on the thigh, which he had to enlarge 
to extract the ball, did not seem much to trouble him; 
but by the contraction of his countenance when he saw 
the course of the wound which had entered my bowels 
beneath the liver, and whose depth he was unable to 
sound, I could see that he had no hope of saving me. 
I perceived this even more by his gestures in reply to the 


396 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


numerous and eager inquiries of the officers ot the Old 
Guard, who were defiling almost on my feet, and by their 
exclamations and regrets, the last farewells offered by 
their friendship, whose remembrance still touches me. 

Thus convinced of my approaching end, Yvan being 
obliged to leave me, I begged him to convey my 
adieux to my family and to the Emperor. Vanity 
must retain a very tenacious hold upon us, or Napoleon 
must have raised it to a high pitch, for I must confess 
that in these last words which I addressed to the 
Emperor, my principal thought was to increase his 
esteem, even consoling myself for death by thinking 
how I should best make a fine end. 

I had felt assured of the success of the battle when 
I saw our reserve march onwards to the front. In 
fact whilst our charge had drawn and concentrated 
upon itself the whole fire of the enemy, Barrois, the 
infantry general, had taken advantage of this diversion, 
and had advanced as far as the rock which had been 
our point of departure and retreat. There, like myself, 
pushed forwards on the road by the Emperor, he had 
no sooner left that shelter to renew my charge, than 
thirteen of his grenadiers were struck down by the 
firing from the redoubt. Then retreating behind 
the rock, he had sent on some companies to scale the 
heights on our right, to turn the obstacle; and later, 
becoming impatient at their hesitation, he had himself 
gone up at the head of his brigade. There, on level 
ground at last, in face of 10,000 Spaniards ranged in 
two lines, he had attacked them. But they, although 
four against one, seeing themselves about to be attacked, 
after discharging their arms, had rushed off helter- 
skelter as fast as their legs could carry them. At 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 397 


the same moment he adds (for I hold it from him and 
have his note under my hand) the noise of the can- 
nonading on the left ceased. 

Our troops were on the point of reaching the burg 
of Buytrago and a last troop of the enemy; they could 
even perceive in their midst a group of French soldiers 
whom they had taken prisoners and were dragging 
along; and were straining every nerve to overtake 
and deliver them, when a sudden halt followed by a 
discharge and the simultaneous fall of all these captives, 
filled them with consternation. The crime was consum- 
mated; the unfortunates shot down at arm’s length were 
slaughtered; vengeance alone remained. It was an 
ample one in spite of the flight of the assassins who 
hoped to escape, and it was found possible afterwards 
to raise up and restore to life a few of their victims. 

The whole of the Spanish corps which had been 
defeated at Sommo-Sierra was not dishonoured by 
this infamous act; but the same corps completed its 
dishonour about ten days later, and twenty leagues 
further on, by a still more odious outrage. Talavera 
de la Reyna was the theatre of this misdeed. The 
rout of these wretches had only come to an end in 
this town, here it had not been believed that they 
could possibly be beaten on the Sommo-Sierra which 
bore the reputation of being sacred and impregnable. 
This it certainly was not, though it was easier to 
defend themselves there. But in order to absolve 
themselves from the charge of cowardice by imput- 
ing their defeat to a betrayal on the part of their 
general, they threw themselves upon the excellent and 
unfortunate Saint-Juan whom they had abandoned; and 
fastening him alive to a stake, during an entire day 


398 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


of agony made him the aim for their execrable skill. 
After they had been shamefully scattered by our 
advance guard, the terrible sight was revealed to us 
of the corpse in its Spanish general’s uniform, riddled 
with a thousand bullets, still fastened up. 

Our main body had passed by during the two hours 
that I was lying stretched on the damp ground, and 
the Emperor having entered Buytrago, where the 
Duc de Bassano had joined him, said to him: “ Before 
“this day is over, I shall have sustained a loss which 
“grieves me deeply,” but learning that I was still 
alive, he dispatched his own carriage with Yvan, his 
surgeon, and orders that if possible I should be conveyed 
to his headquarters. This journey of several miles over 
the encumbered ground was a very painful one. They 
were forced to stop every moment as I was suffocating; 
and often Yvan, who was escorting me on horse-back, 
would bend his head over to see if I was still breathing. 

But I remember even then, that perceiving by the 
road side several groups of Spanish prisoners, I was 
struck by the menacing pride of their attitude, their 
sombre and ferocious physiognomies, and the thunderous 
glances full of rage and hatred which they still dared 
to cast upon us. 

The next morning, after having left one of his sur- 
geons beside me, the Emperor, who was riding on 
the road to Madrid with Berthier, said, calling up Larrey 
the surgeon-in-chief: “You have seen Ségur, can you 
answer for his life?” On his response in the negative, 
after several inquiries addressed to Duroc and Berthier, 
he turned round to the other officers who were follow- 
ing, and asked: “Does anyone know where and how 
Ségur was wounded? Was it in carrying an order?” 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 399 


Nobody could reply, for Walther was not there; but 
Piré like a Breton, as he was, ever to the fore, and 
perfectly fearless, feeling surprised at this question 
as I myself was afterwards, spurred on his horse. 
“Why! Sire,” he said, “it was whilst charging by your 
“orders at the head of your own special Polish squadron, 
“T heard it and I saw it!” Upon this, it would appear that 
General Montbrun, since celebrated, added a few words of 
such a flattering nature that it is not for me to mention 
them. Yvan also repeated some of the words which he had 
heard me utter. The Emperor then, so they said, fell into 
a very thoughtful mood, and after that he made Yvan 
bring him every day a bulletin of my condition. 
Nevertheless in the bulletin of this battle and the 
following one, although the Emperor did me the honour 
of daily public notification of my condition, and also 
announced that he had made me a colonel, he judged 
it necessary to confound the most of these details here 
related in one single charge. But it will also be seen, 
that as far as I was concerned, he did not stop short 
at the preceding marks of his esteem, a personal fact 
which would not be worthy of mention, were it not on 
account of the calumnies which accused this great man 
of hardness, and a want of kindness and gratitude. 
During this march forwards of the Emperor I had 
been left at Buytrago alone with my surgeon, I should 
rather say alone with myself; not that this doctor was 
without merit, for the future proved the contrary; but 
being then very young and having little practice in his art, 
or faith in himself, he was of those who fear to attract 
the enemy by attacking him. Never daring anything, 
for fear of killing, he allowed one to die, and would 
temporise in a state of indecision whilst the patient 


400 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


was in the grip of his malady and there was not a 
moment to lose. 

This timid doctor was all the more emboldened in 
pursuing his system because the farewells of my friends 
and the prognostications of his masters had convinced 
him that my doom was sealed. Therefore on the rst 
and 2nd of December when the danger which Yvan 
had momentarily prevented by bleeding me, returned 
with the fever, thinking that he was only there to 
keep up appearances, he allowed it to take possession 
of my whole being; with this result that on December 
3rd by the first rays of daylight I saw him packing 
up his portmanteau, as if, seeing me speechless and 
breathless, and probably believing I was almost uncon- 
scious, he was every moment expecting our simultaneous 
departure: his own for Madrid, which he was in a hurry 
to reach, and mine for the other world, in which, I must 
confess, I was not so anxious to suit his convenience. 

I was suffocating all the time, and, unable to make 
myself heard, I could perceive my valet de chambre, 
Le Grand, sitting on the ground by my bed weeping 
bitterly; but not feeling at all in a melting mood, I 
was hanging on to my last thread, when I heard the 
doctor dictate to this excellent servant the last things 
that were to be done for me: “He was to take care 
“of my property; to keep some last souvenirs for my 
“family, and to have me buried suitably.” 

I was not so resigned but what I could be angry! 
Were these the only prescriptions which I had aright 
to expect from this doctor? His neglect enraged me, 
and with a last effort I called him by a gesture; he 
came back and leant over me, and I was just able to 
articulate, that if there were any last chance to try, he 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 401 


had better resort to it, “Not bleed you!” he replied, you 
are so feeble! I could see, by his eyes raised to heaven, 
that he was afraid lest I should die under his lancet. But 
stretching my arm out with an imperious sign and word, 
it decided him: the blood spouted out, and I was saved! 

That very evening the doctor proclaimed with pride 
that I was out of danger; but in his inmost heart, 
although glad of this, I think he was very much 
mystified at my coming to life again. I did so with 
such promptitude, and he was in such a hurry to 
reach Madrid, that three days later, the carriage of the 
colonel of the 54th being there, he placed me in it 
and we started for that town in the middle of an icy 
snow-storm. He did not even hesitate to instal me 
that night, shivering with fever and cold, under a 
miserable open shed on some damp straw, where, 
during twelve mortal hours, a thick bed of snow lay 
on the rug which he had cast over me. One cannot 
forget such sufferings, though one ought rather to 
feel pride than regret, glory consisting as much in 
enduring them bravely as in confronting them. We 
did, however, reach there at last. 

I fear I may perhaps have somewhat too much 
descanted on these details, but would like to add yet 
another fact of which I was almost a witness during 
this journey, a fact principally interesting by the 
discussion which it provoked. We had halted in a 
village where there was one of our stores officials 
as well as a depot of prisoners. This emfloyé, a man 
of sense, with whom I was acquainted, after having 
asked how I was going on, accosting my doctor, 
exclaimed: “ That if it could be affirmed by a material 
“proof, that it is the mind alone which feels in us and 

28 


402 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“not the body, a fact which he had observed with 
“one of the officers taken at Sommo-Sierra, would 
“suffice. This prisoner,” he added, “had had an arm 
“amputated in the affair, and had hardly recovered 
“before he got into a quarrel with some other prisoners 
“and very nearly lost the other arm which was wounded 
“in some way in the scrimmage.” 

Up to that point metaphysics do not seem to have 
entered into a purely physical accident, but it was re- 
marked at the time that in the exasperation of his anger 
the prisoner did not the least seem to feel the violent 
blow which he had received on his remaining arm, whilst 
he was always complaining, like others who have had 
amputated limbs, of the pain in the other arm which 
he had left on the field of battle. Our employé argued 
from this that feeling can only exist in the mind, 
because by it alone this unfortunate man could suffer 
in a missing part of his body, whilst, on the other 
hand, the mind entirely given up to passion, had 
withdrawn the sense of feeling from the healthy part 
of his body which was still alive! 

Upon which I saw the doctor smile. Having more 
to do with the body than the mind, he explained this 
fact more materially; attributing the effect of the pain 
of the missing member to a continuity of sensation in 
the common origin of the nerves, and the contrary 
result, that of want of sensibility in the remaining 
arm, to a sort of contraction, a concentration produced 
in the brain by anger. 

For my part very much interested as I had been 
lately in not separating the mind from the body, this 
solution which appeared satisfactory, physiologically 
speaking, seemed to me, philosophically, incomplete 


7 





OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 403 


and insufficient. I did not think it went sufficiently 
back to the principle in question; I therefore added to 
complete it, a quotation of the passage from Malebranche 
where he says: “That the mind resides immediately 
“in that part of the brain to which all the organs of 
“the senses lead;” either because God has chained it 
to this summit like Prometheus to his rock, or that, 
imprisoned in our body of which it is the life, this spot 
must be its centre of action; the precise spot where God 
has willed that, in an ever impenetrable mystery, this 
emanation of his immaterial immensity and eternity 
should undergo a passing personification, at one and 
the same time spiritual and material. 

However this may be, in the midst of these reflec- 
tions I had arrived at Madrid on December 7th. During 
my stay in this capital up to the 27th, both before 
and after the Emperor’s departure, I was overwhelmed 
with marks of his interest. He informed me through 
Berthier that he had made me a colonel: and after my 
letter of thanks he said with a smile: “ Well, if he is 
“ambitious, that is a proof that he will live; but in the 
“future I desire that he should expose himself less. I 
“have been in fifty battles without a single wound; 
“and here he gets wounded twice running. One should 
“really have some luck in war!” 

Thereupon they discussed the matter; not seeming 
to have remarked that where I had only been wounded 
the greater part of those who had followed me had 
perished. But they came to the conclusion nevertheless 
from a general observation already quoted by Louis XV, 
as may be seen in my father’s memoirs, that I offered 
a fresh example of those strange and systematic blows 
of fate which alternately strike one generation and 


404 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


miss another. Thus my grandfather, the Marshal de 
Ségur, had been constantly struck, my father spared, 
and myself struck like my grandfather! 

The Emperor added that he would console me for 
this. On the eve of his departure he sent me word 
by Duroc that he entrusted me with the duty of 
bearing and presenting to the Legislative Assembly all 
the standards taken in the campaign. He was good 
enough to request General Belliard, the governor of 
Madrid, not to let me go till I was quite strong 
enough. Then, notwithstanding the haste with which 
he again entered on his campaign, on mounting his 
horse, he handed over the letter which will be read 
below; such a letter as in conjunction with so many 
marks of attachment to those around him, can hardly, 
I think, leave any grounds for the accusations of 
coldness and ingratitude. 

“M. PHILIPPE DE SEGUR, I was truly grieved to know 
“that you were for a time in danger. I learn with 
“much pleasure that the state of your wounds allows 
“of your entering upon the convalescent stage, and that 
“you will soon be able to complete your recovery in 
“Paris. You must be under no kind of anxiety as to 
“your future; you have given me every possible proof 
“of your zeal, your courage, and your attachment to 
“my person. Your principal care at present must be 
“to get cured of your wounds so that you should feel 
“no evil effects from them. This letter having no other 
“purpose, I pray God that He may have you ever in 
Girls sholy, keeping! 7, % 

“At Madrid, December 21st, 1808.” 
“NAPOLEON.” 


* The original is in the National Archives. 


CHAPTER XXVIL 


I PRESENT THE STANDARDS TO THE 
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 


O finish with these details which are too long and 

doubtless too personal, I will only add that on 
December 27th, 1808, lying full length in a carriage 
with the conquered standards under my care, I left 
Madrid for Bayonne, by Sommo-Sierra, Burgos, and 
Vittoria. A company of infantry escorted me, camping 
at night around me and the standards. This was indis- 
pensable, and an officer carrying dispatches, having 
insisted in spite of our advice in going a little in front 
of us, was killed as soon as he got beyond the pro- 
tection of our bayonets. 

At last on January 7th, 1809, leaving for the second 
time this country of Spain which had proved almost as 
fatal to me as it was to be to the Empire and the Emperor, 
I returned to France and soon rejoined my family. 
My wounds, which were still open, having kept me on 
my back some months longer, it was necessary to put 
off to the next session, that of 1809 to 1810, the 
presentation to the Legislative Assembly, of the trophies 
conquered by our armies of Spain in 1808. But as 
this last scene almost exclusively concerns the subject 


. which occupies our attention, why delay the narrative ? 


I therefore give it here. 
405 


406 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


It would certainly seem that to a young colonel, 
above all eager for glory, such a day should appear the 
finest and happiest of his whole life. But one has to 
pay for everything; and it may be considered a sin- 
gular fact that the moment which preceded this presen- 
tation, redounding so much to my honour, was perhaps 
one of the most trying moments that I have ever spent. 
Such are the secret anomalies of the soul, when imag- 
ination excites itself, and self-love is bound up with 
more elevated sentiments. 

May I confess that, in this moment, the public honours 
which Napoleon had lavished upon me, the pleasure of 
associating my father with them, of enabling him to be 
at once a spectator and an actor at this memorable 
sitting, (that of January 22nd, 1810,) when the most 
celebrated orator of the time, M. de Fonianes, in 
replying to me was to speak for the last time; the public 
composed of princes and foreign kings who would be 
present ; these standards, these picked soldiers of renown 
who surrounded me, ‘finally, and above all, the honour 
of speaking before the representatives of the greatest 
of nations, in the name of its Grand Army and in that 
of the grandest of men; all this instead of inflating me 
with presumption, -had perfectly overwhelmed me. 

I had left the chateau of the Tuileries on foot, feeling 
then in good spirits, at the head of eighty grenadiers 
of the Old Guard, and the Spanish standards which they 
were carrying. But when, after having traversed the 
gardens of the Imperial palace up to the Place de 
la Concorde, I found myself in the antechamber of 
the legislative precincts, to wait there till the doors 
of this chamber were opened for the moment when the 
historical scene should begin, I must confess that all 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 407 


the joyous pride of my soul vanished in the fear which 
assailed me lest I should badly sustain my part and 
destroy all this pomp by not rising to the proper 
dignity of the occasion. With what kind of an air 
should I present myself before such a considerable 
assembly? How should I show a sufficiently steadfast 
demeanour when confronted by so many glances? and, 
worst of all, when I should have to ascend that tribune, 
for me so novel a position, what attitude should I 
assume? How should I render my voice sufficiently 
steady, distinct, and assured to be heard? What a hu- 
miliation, what a disastrous situation it would be, were 
my memory to fail me, should I not be sufficiently 
master of myself to remember the discourse learnt off 
beforehand that I had to deliver; if I were to stop 
short in the midst of the universal silence and attention! 

During half an hour of suspense and ever increasing 
anxiety, my excited imagination brought it to such a 
pitch that even now I cannot conceive how I managed 
not to break down. I felt as if my whole being was 
disordered, when the doors opened at last. Imperious 
necessity alone enabled me to enter after several others 
and go up the whole length of the room in an absolutely 
mechanical manner, although the ground seemed to be 
giving way beneath me. Having arrived at the foot of 
the tribune—so redoubtable a spot that the most eloquent 
orators have declared they are never able to ascend it 
without an emotion which shortens their lives—I felt 
incapable of pronouncing a single word, when a 
false movement of my grenadiers restored the power 
of speech to me, The order which I gave them, an 
every-day matter, roused me from my stupor. The sound 
of my own voice reassured me, my being underwent 


408 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


a sudden revolution, and all my fears took flight. This 
transformation was so prompt and complete that once 
in face of the Assembly I spoke with such assurance 
as to delight myself, enchant my grenadiers, and quite 
surprise the legislators, one of whom, M. d’Aguesseau, 
my uncle, told me afterwards that he would have pre- 
ferred a greater semblance of modesty. This criticism, 
which was really so little deserved, was received by 
me in a lively spirit, as I infinitely preferred it to a 
reproach of an opposite nature, which I esteemed 
myself very happy to have escaped, 


CHAPTER XXVIIL 
INTRIGUES AT PARIS: FOUCHE AND BERNADOTTE. 


AVING been obliged to remain in France to get 
cured, I was the witness of numerous intrigues. 
The campaign of the malcontents of the interior had 
been re-opened with the campaign of Austria in 1809. 
Once again, and more than ever, as we have seen, the 
chances of the one had excited the activity of the 
other. Indeed, the Emperor’s wound at Ratisbon; the 
disaster of Essling; the sudden illness followed by the 
attempt of assassination at Schcenbrunn; the risings 
in the north and south of Germany; the evidently 
fallacious element in the co-operation of the Russian 
Emperor; the violences committed in Rome, and the 
excommunication; the English descent; our reverses in 
the Peninsula; all these vicissitudes in short, of a re- 
ligious, a naval, and continental struggle engaged at 
all points of the horizon, were so much food for the 
calculations of those who had grown weary of attach- 
ing their destinies to the precarious and compromising 
existence of a single man. 
It should, therefore, not cause astonishment that in 
the interior, everyone was not resigned to this hand- 
to-mouth existence, and that amongst men whom 


these revolutions had created and worn out, a certain 
409 


410 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


number desired to feel some security for the future. 
We have seen that at the head of these tneasy 
speculators were Fouché and Talleyrand; two person- 
ages of very different origin, looking upon themselves 
as the representatives of the old and the new society, 
a circumstance which they considered useful for the 
furtherance of their ambitious views, and all the greater 
reason that they should draw together; for the rest, 
having no morality to inconvenience them, agreeing 
as to the necessity of holding themselves ready to 
meet any event, and having quite made up their 
minds to extract every kind of profit therefrom for 
their own personal interest. 

Although present in Paris, where I was detained by 
my wounds, not being a very fitting historian of such 
details, I will only relate such of the facts as came 
directly under my knowledge by reason of the part 
which I had perforce to take in them. 

On July 7th, the day after Wagram, a lying pro- 
clamation of Bernadotte had attributed to his Saxon 
main body the honour of the victory. It was the 
skilful habit of this marshal to endeavour to win 
hearts and gain partisans on all sides. This, however, 
did him very little good, his corps being immediately 
disbanded, himself censured, brought to book, and 
sent back into France where, being taken up in his 
disgrace by Fouché and Talleyrand, he associated him- 
self with their intrigues. 

Fouché, the Minister of Police, was then also in 
temporary charge of the ministry of the interior. An 
ever restless and audacious courtier of Fortune, skilful 
in taking up such a position as to remain her indis- 
pensable minister in whatever direction she might 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 4II 


turn, he always had one hand hidden in those of the 
malcontents, and the other eager to display itself before 
the eyes of the reigning power as the most devoted 
and useful of servants. 

It was at that moment that the English descent had 
suddenly threatened Antwerp. On this news, notwith- 
standing the hesitation of Cambacérés, Fouché had taken 
upon himself to call the National Guard to arms, to 
mobilise part of them, gain over the officers, and 
incite Bernadotte to ask for the command. But Clarck, 
who was then Minister of War, had mistrusted his 
colleague. As a man of order and of aristocratic 
inclinations, he detested the antecedents and the revolu- 
tionary spirit of Fouché; he suspected his intentions 
and transmitted his doubts to Schoenbrunn. 

The Emperor, in spite of the distance which separated 
him from such grave complications, did not take alarm. 
Just as on the battle field he could discern decisive 
points with an unerring eye, he appreciated every danger, 
he assigned to everyone his part, and was able to guard 
against everything. In order to make the descent mis- 
carry he multiplied the necessary orders, adding that it 
would be sufficient to hold it in check, crowded up as the 
troops were in the marshes of Zealand, where they would 
be decimated by fever, which was exactly what happened. 
The King of Holland and Bernadotte each offered to take 
the chief command at Antwerp: he refused his brother, 
whose zeal he suspected, besides considering him 
inefficient; while with regard to Bernadotte, as this 
mission would cause the Marshal to leave Paris, he 
entrusted it to him, on condition that he should only 
place under his orders officers of incorruptible fidelity. 
With regard to the calling out of the National Guard, 


412 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


at first only partial, he approved of it, he even encou- 
raged this demonstration which augmented the idea of 
his power and his means of recruitment. He had, 
therefore, in the first instance, praised Fouché for this 
measure; upon which the latter, by way of increasing 
his importance, extended the call to the whole of 
France although the danger was over, thus drawing 
upon himself well-deserved suspicions, which the Em- 
peror did not try to conceal. Amongst other grievances 
he disapproved of this minister’s haste to nominate 
the officers of the National Guard. Nevertheless, with 
regard to this, he only took notice of Clarck’s warning 
as far as concerned Paris. It was only there, that 
looking closer into the matter, he insisted on Fouché 
retracting one of his selections, Louis de Girardin, 
whom he had appointed colonel of the Horse Guards 
in that town. 

I was then about again, and nearly cured of my 
wounds, when on the oth or roth of September, Clarck 
sent for me. “You see,” he said, “what is going on, 
“Fouche has just levied 30,000 men in Paris. He is 
“arming the people, even domestic servants. It is a 
“levy of ’93 that he wants to have at his disposal. He 
“is preparing to play a great part in certain anticipated 
“cases, such as a more serious illness than the indispo- 
“sition which has just attacked the Emperor, or a more 
“severe wound than that of Ratisbon, or a more complete 
“reverse than that of Essling. Thirty thousand armed 
“men in Paris! An army would be necessary to guard 
“us from this guard. He continues to organise it in 
“spite of us: he has nominated the officers, although he 
“knew perfectly well that the Emperor had reserved the 
“right to himself. His aim is evident, it is a betrayal. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 413 


“ But I am looking after him. That is why the Emperor 
“has just given Marshal Serrurier the command of this 
“fine National Guard; as for the cavalry, he wants you 
“to be its colonel, and we shall then see if Fouché will 
“be able to do what he pleases with it.” 

I did not like Fouché any more than he did, but I 
must confess that this sudden announcement of the 
role which was being prepared for me in this conflict 
was as if a slate had fallen on my head. I, in the 
National Guard! My career thus cut short by a vet- 
eran’s brevet, when I was anxious to return to active 
service! No piece of news could possibly have been 
more displeasing to me. But the circumstances were 
imperative, and the Emperor, more imperative than 
they, never allowed the least objection to be made to 
his orders. I did not attempt it, but returned home 
very much annoyed, and found awaiting me there an 
invitation from Fouche to go and see him on the morrow. 

Everybody knows this personage; his medium stature, 
his tow-coloured hair, lank and scanty, his active 
leanness, his long, mobile, pale face with the physiog- 
nomy of an excited ferret; one remembers his piercing 
keen glance, shifty nevertheless, his little, blood-shot 
eyes, his brief and jerky manner of speech which was 
in harmony with his restless, uneasy attitude. Directly 
he perceived me, all these features were accentuated 
by an ill-restrained discomfiture. Being obliged to 
inform me that the Emperor had cancelled his selection 
and nominated me in its place, he could not hide his 
annoyance from me. This I shared, agreeing fully 
with the Minister of War; but with a quick change 
of front in Fouché’s company I declared myself hon- 
oured by the Emperor’s trust, eager to obey his orders, 


414 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


and consequently to be promptly recognised as the 
head of the National Guard. 

Possibly this minister may have hoped that I should 
hesitate, perhaps refuse. My alacrity augmented his 
confusion; he tried to evade the matter, putting it off 
to the next day, and when the time had arrived he 
said to me: “That he had referred it to the Council 
“of ministers, but that they had not come to any deci- 
“tion, and that 1 must wait; that he must write to 
“Vienna where no doubt it was not known that 
“Girardin had been actually recognised as colonel; 
“and finally, that he should continue to fill the post 
“for the time being until the Emperor, better informed, 
“should send him fresh orders; that indeed a second 
“regiment might be formed, and that he would propose 
“me as general of the brigade.” 

Two regiments! when they had hardly been able 
to get together a hundred volunteers for the first; 
when this little number, almost entirely composed of 
bankers and stockbrokers, very decided not to go outside 
the gates, had not even the leisure to exercise them- 
selves in the indispensable manoeuvres; this was such 
a palpable fraud that I at once denounced it at head- 
quarters. I hoped that when the Emperor knew the 
whole truth he would be too disgusted to entrust me 
with this command, 

The fact is that in the Council the discussion had 
not concerned myself at all. Clarck and Fouché had 
had another passage of arms. The former had ex- 
claimed: “That it was only a confounded Jacobin 
“of ’93 who would have entertained the idea of raising 
“and arming the National Guard in Paris.” To which 
Fouche had answered: “That it was only a stranger 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 415 


“who had sold himself to the English who could 
“oppose the formation of this guard.” 

Hulin, Commandant of the capital, spoken out pretty_ 
plainly, telling me: “He could no longer answer for 
“Paris. His patrols were unexpectedly coming across 
“unknown posts and patrols: it was impossible to tell 
“if they were citizens or evil-doers: He would disarm 
“them; he would fire upon them!” 

Such was the exasperation, when on December 28th 
I was recalled by Fouche. This minister handing me 
my commission, said that the Emperor persisted, that 
he had confirmed my nomination. Then unfolding the 
letter he had just received, he read me this passage: 
“That other sovereigns nominated to the command of 
“their regiments those only who could prove quarters 
“of nobility; that quarters of nobility for him were 
“wounds received in the service of the country; that 
“T was covered with them, and the command in 
“consequence should be reserved for me.” 

As little satisfied as Fouché with this ending, I 
went off at once to Clarck to tell him the news. “He 
“has not told you everything,” he answered: “The 
“wretch is persisting in his projects. If it were not 
“for that, instead of going on with the organisation 
“of his National Guard, he would begin to disband it 
“as he has received orders to do; I can prove this to 
“you; your own corps is included in this, if it is not 
“organised so as to be able to enter on a compaign. 
“(Go to Marshal Serrurier, and he will confirm this order.” 

This was the letter indeed, but not the spirit, which 
Clarck did not sufficiently consider. The question was 
how to send back to their homes every one of these 
volunteers who were already too hostile to the Emperor, 


410 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


without increasing their discontent, which was not an 
easy matter? But I tried to do more than this; I 
undertook to alter their frame of mind. It was 
their officers especially, already uniformed, equipped 
and mounted at their own expense, and much annoyed 
at this useless expenditure of money, publicity, and 
action, who wanted by resigning in a mass, which 
would have had a very bad effect, to forestall this dis- 
bandment which Clarck’s officiousness had divulged too 
early. I dissuaded them from this, and with the help 
of the administrative authorities, with much civility, fine 
words and a few dinners, gained time; then going on 
by degrees, and taking advantage of the fortunate news 
of the shameful retreat of the English expedition, I 
held out before them by way of a reward for their now 
aimless zeal, the hope of being retained as Guards of 
honour to Napoleon, which they accepted. This was 
already a return to him, a kind of offer of devotion 
to his person. At the same time I obtained from Clarck 
for those whom the pride of a uniform in these glorious 
days had excited with martial hopes, the prospect of 
some commissions in the acting army. 

Thus by degrees whilst the horses were being sold 
and the thing breaking up by itself, each of its pro- 
moters having been specially gained over, we finished 
with a grand banquet, where, whilst doing me honour 
in verse and prose with an enthusiasm which was 
promoted by champagne, the health of the Emperor 
was drunk; after which everyone went away mutually 
delighted. 

If, however, peace was re-established with Austria, it 
was quite otherwise in the Council at Paris. Here the 
triumphant Clarck and the discomfited Fouché were 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 417 


confronting each other, each striving to damage the 
- other in the mind of the Emperor. According to Clarck, 
it was certain that Fouché had secret relations with 
England, and that from Antwerp Bernadotte kept up 
seditious correspondence with him and other malcontents. 
The result was that Bernadotte, whose place had been 
taken by Bessieres, was recalled and ordered to 
travel, or to go to Schoenbrunn, and later to take a 
command in Catalonia. This marshal’s lucky star made 
him chose the Imperial quarters, and there Napoleon, 
who was much less vindictive than was supposed, 
offered him the government of Rome which he first 
accepted, then neglected as an exile, and finally 
threw over. We shall see later that the prospect of 
the throne of Sweden had opened itself to this indivi- 
dual’s ambition like a realisation of an Arabian Night’s 
dream. 

The quarrel of the two ministers had reached this 
point when in the middle of the night of the 26th to 
the 27th October, I was aroused by an order to leave 
at once to receive the Emperor at Fontainebleau. I 
got there early in the morning by one door, at the 
very time when the Emperor, who had just returned 
from Germany, was entering alone by another; pros- 
trated, however, by fatigue he immediately went to bed 
and had me called to him at the same moment. The 
first words he spoke were an eager demand to know 
what had been the meaning of this National Guard in 
Paris. I answered: That it had been insignificant, 
without any aim; and, which was more important, that 
if it had not been for coercive measures and the rumour 
that had been circulated as to the possibility of a riot 
amongst 100,000 workmen of the faubourgs, not a 

29 


418 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


single citizen would have presented himself; and that 
their disbanding had been effected to the general 
satisfaction. As to the corps under me I described 
its composition, making no secret of its originally 
hostile spirit, which I palliated on the ground of the 
natural discontent of bankers and traders in time of 
war. 

The Emperor interrupted me by recriminations against 
this class of his subjects, which he believed to be 
hostile to him. I calmed him by speaking of the better 
feeling with which we had parted. But as the names 
of some whom he knew to be against him had been 
mentioned, his anger against them broke out afresh 
and became even threatening. It is true that these 
were ardent, aggressive, and slanderous men, full 
of self-love, which gave a certain hold upon them. I 
commented on this, saying that they could be won 
over by a few favours, and that I had taken care to 
assure myself of this. He then fell into a reflection 
of which I took advantage to retire, well pleased that 
he had not thought of interrogating me concerning 
the quarrel of the two ministers, which, out of prudence, 
I did not at all care to be mixed up with. This also 
saved me from replies which would have been too 
much like a denunciation. 

The next day, however, during a conversation on 
this subject with the Grand Marshal Duroc when I 
was less on my guard, I perceived by the manner in 
which he listened to me, that the conversation might 
be carried higher and further than I had any intention 
of. Indeed the very next day I saw the two ministers 
arrive at Fontainebleau: first Clarck, who left the 
Emperor’s study in a very excited condition, and then 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 419 


Fouché, whose colloquy with the Emperor had lasted 
longer. I knew that in such circumstances it was the 
Emperor’s habit to back up his own reproaches by 
citing the names of those whose opinions or words 
had aroused his attention. I therefore waited for 
Fouché’s departure so as to ascertain by his counte- 
nance on first catching sight of me, whether my out- 
pourings of the previous evening had not made a 
dangerous enemy of this minister. 

This apprehension was not long of realisation. 
Fouché came out, and seeing me out of the corner of 
his eye without appearing to have taken any notice, 
he began to walk across the room quickly with his 
customary uneasiness. As for me, carelessly leaning 
against the marble console which is still opposite to 
the fireplace, I was resolutely waiting in silence, 
when coming straight up at last, he accosted me, and 
brusquely proposed a walk in the forest. This I ac- 
cepted, preferring an explanation, however stormy, to 
a smouldering grudge, most dangerous in a chief of 
the police. 

This was what he thought fit to tell me with his 
customary cunning. It is probable that the Emperor, 
by reason of my confidences to the Grand Marshal, 
had reminded his minister in the bitterness of his 
reproaches, of his sorry reputation, without diminishing 
any of the sanguinary and revolutionary colours which 
the public and Clarck had laid on so thickly. This 
was no doubt the reason, that with the view of rehab- 
ilitating it, Fouche’s first care, while still fresh from 
this scene, was to relate his entire life to me, a nar- 
rative which I found in my notes written that very 
day, and which seemed to me worth preserving. 


420 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“M. de Ségur,” he said, “many suppositions are 
“originated and many stories are invented about me. It 
“is said that I have been a priest, and that I am married 
“toanun. The truth is that brought up in the Oratory, 
“T did not even receive the tonsure; and as for my mar- 
“riage, it took place in 1789, an epoch when priests did 
“not marry and when nuns were not taken in marriage. 

“ Another equally absurd supposition regarding me is 
“that I am said to be a revolutionary. Lyons is given 
“as an instance. There is in all this a share of ignor- 
“ance, confusion, and anachronism. It may be con- 
“ceived that it is sometimes needful to run with the 
“hounds, to submit to certain necessities; but the fact 
“is that being sent there, after the sacking of that 
“town, I came back disgusted, with a report against 
“ Robespierre, and from that moment up to gth Ther- 
“midor I was his open rival. 

“Robespierre was installed at the Jacobins, and I 
“in the Committees whence I sent him out; you shall 
“see! JI was myself a Jacobin, but there were two 
“kinds. As for us, we were not popular; we talked 
“about equality, but at bottom we were aristocrats. 
“Yes, greater aristocrats perhaps than anyone! 

“The Jacobins of the opposite party, like Hulin 
“for example, were mere loafers; they. shouted 
“from the pit; we looked down upon them from the 
“boxes; it was Robespierre’s agents who flattered the 
“populace; Robespierre was their head, their soul, be- 
“lieving he would reign by them and use them to crush 
“the Convention; but we were his antagonists, and I 
“the foremost. He feared me; I had known him from 
“his youth; we were at the same academy; I had then 
“had opportunities of showing him his inefficiency—his 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 421 


“relative inefficiency—for he was misjudged. He 
“possessed some talent, a strong and persevering will; 
“a certain simplicity, no greed; but he was swollen with 
“pride which I had humiliated. This was quite sufficient 
“to make him my mortal enemy. His malicious and 
“envious disposition would never forgive it, any more 
“than he forgave Lacuée whom he would have had 
“guillotined but for Carnot. And that simply because 
“once, at Metz, I think, during some academic com- 
“petition, Lacuée’s notes had been preferred to his own. 
“Having been sent for to Paris, Lacuée would have 
“been lost from the very moment of his arrival, if, 
“acting, on Carnot’s advice, he had not escaped by 
“one door at the very moment when the gendarmes 
“were entering by the other to seize him and deliver 
“up his head to Robespierre’s wounded self-love. 

“T felt that it would not do to seek out a man of 
“that kind in his club, that he would play me some 
“dirty Jacobin trick; that I should be overwhelmed and 
“crushed and that if I wanted to resist him I must 
“choose some other ground, that is to say the Convention 
“itself and its Committees. 

“On my return to Lyons I commenced proceedings there 
“by a report on what ought to be done to check the 
“entire disorganisation of this province, of which J] 
“accused Robespierre. Everyone was surprised, even 
“terrified at my audacity, amongst others, Carnot, who 
“embraced me in his emotion, praising my courage, but 
“warning me that it would cost me my head. That 
“did not stop me, I still went on; and addressing myself 
“to all the enemies of the Dictator, whether in private, 
“or in meetings which I convoked as the head of public 
“instruction, I wound them up, I encouraged them, and 


422 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“decided the Committee to call upon Robespierre to 
“defend himself before them. This would have placed 
“him in a false position, and he would not do it; he 
“refused to appear, and shut himself up at the Jacobins 
“where I proposed to attack him, have him seized as 
“a rebel, and thrown into the river. 

“We were consulting as to the means to be employed 
“at the time of the gth Thermidor, the day when Tallien, 
“alone and unexpectedly, without having warned us, 
“and knowing nothing of our own plans, forestalled us 
“by denouncing Robespierre as the tyrant of his col- 
“leagues. He quoted me in support of this accusation, 
“to which Robespierre replied, that it was a duel between 
“him and me. You know the rest. But what is not 
“known is that under the Directorate lit was I who 
“ destroyed the tail of this party after having thus fought 
“its head! 

“Tt was still a question of the Jacobins; not those 
“of the Convention to which I had belonged; those had 
“wanted to overthrow Royalty, and substitute a Repub- 
“lic for it; they had a great end in view, whilst these 
“of the Directorate had none at all. 

“ Their club, reconstructed in the riding hall, already 
“comprised 3,0ovo brothers and friends. They were be- 
“ginning to settle down, when I made a report against 
“them to the Directorate. The conclusion they arrived at 
“was that in the eyes of Europe, it was humiliating for 
“the Government to allow this vulgar herd of anarchists 
“to impose laws upon them. On this, the Directorate 
“divided and uncertain, and not daring to come to a 
“decision, sent my proposition to the Five Hundred. 
“This caused a crisis, all the more that Bernadotte, 
“then Minister of War; Marbot, Commandant of Paris; 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 423 


“and Jourdan, President of the Five Hundred, supported 
“these Jacobins. They raised the cry of tyranny, they 
“forsook me, I was on the point of being sacrificed; 
“but I did not hesitate. I sent for Bernadotte, and 
“said to him: ‘Idiot! where are you going to, and what 
“*do you want to do? It would have been all right in 
“093, when there was everything to gain by making 
“‘*and unmaking. But what we wanted then, we 
“ “possess to-day. And as we have got what we wanted 
“and should only lose by going on, why do so?’ 

“He had nothing to answer to this, and yet he per- 
“sisted. Then I added: ‘Do as you please, but just 
“*remember this; that after to-morrow when [I shall 
“ “have something to say to your club, if I find you at the 
“ ‘head of it, your own shall tumble off your shoulders. 
“*T give you my word of honour, and I shall keep it.’ 
“This argument brought him to a decision. 

“As for Jourdan, the next day at the Council of the 
“Five Hundred, at the moment when he and his 
“partisans were beginning to vociferate, declaring that 
“the Minister of Police was to be put beyond the 
“pale of the law, they were interrupted by a thunder 
“of cavalry. This was a regiment whose chief be- 
“longed to me. JI had ordered him to execute this 
“manceuvre, on a given signal to go at a hard trot 
“round and round the hall of the Assembly, making 
“as much noise as possible. This succeeded perfectly. 
“At the sudden and unexpected sound of the clash of 
“arms, words of command, and military movements, 
“the most noisy of the lot were completely terrified; 
“their shouts died away in their throats, those of our 
“friends overpowered them; and that very evening the 
“riding hall was closed to the Jacobins. Repulsed 


424 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


“from there, they tried to reunite at the Palace of 
“Salm when J again had them turned out; after which 
“some arrests accompanied by many threats, were 
“enough to put an end to this carmagnole.” 

In this style Fouché, apparently desirous of proving 
that he was on our side, and the most useful of friends 
or the most dangerous of enemies, held forth for an 
hour. When he had come to the end of this singu- 
larly naive apology, he left me in the full conviction 
that he had greatly edified me; that between the two 
shades of Robespierre’s Terrorism and his Jacobinism, I 
should draw a great and flattering distinction in his 
honour; that this would cause me to overlook in his 
person the regicide, the proconsul, the signer of so 
many bloody executions, who had sustained his struggle 
against Robespierre by making. us lose our heads; 
and that I could not fail to admire the genius with 
which, as soon as he personally was satisfied with the 
fruit of his labours, he had known when to stop, to 
veer round, and associate himself with his victims. 

My conclusions were of an entirely opposite nature. 
If it were possible to recognise in this extraordinary 
justification, an individual disgusted with the crimes to 
which he owed his elevation after these crimes had 
become useless and even harmful to him, I saw over 
and above this the most audacious of intriguers, always 
ready to risk revolutionary or other means to render 
himself indispensable at any price in the position he 
had won for himself: a dangerous minister to the Gov- 
ernment that employed him, ever ready to betray it, 
and only serving it for personal ends. 


CHAPTER, XXX, 


NAPOLEON AT M. DE CHATEAUBRIAND’S RECEPTION 
INTO THE ACADEMY. 


APOLEON seldom deceived himself as to the 
N sentiments which he inspired. One day address- 
ing my father, he questioned him as to what he thought 
would be said about him after his death. My father 
was beginning to expatiate on our regrets when the 
Emperor interrupted him with a “ Not at all! they will 
say:—ouf!” and he accompanied this exclamation 
with a gesture of relief which expressed in the most 
significant manner the following words: “ At last we 
are going to be able to breathe and enjoy ourselves! ” 

But outside of these private conversations, or the dis- 
cussions of his Council, in public it was often dangerous 
to find oneself in Napoleon’s road. This may be seen 
from an incident at this epoch in which my father figured. 

Chénier had just died, and M. de Chateaubriand had 
inscribed himself on the roll of candidates who were 
desirous of succeeding to him in the Académie Francaise, 
over which my father then presided. M. de Chateau- 
briand came to ask for his vote and the exercise of 
any influence that he might possess amongst his con- 
freres. My father answered frankly that he had come 
too late for this occasion as his vote and influence were 

425 


426 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


held in reserve for M. Aignan, the translator of the Z/zad ; 
that as a matter of fact, it was forbidden by the statutes 
that such promises should be made to anyone, although 
one could keep one made to oneself, and such was his 
position. M. de Chateaubriand, however, was so 
actively persistent, he alleged such powerful claims, 
and so positively promised his vote and that of his 
friend to M. Aignan for the first place vacant after 
Chenier, that my father, recognising the just claims of 
the author of the Géuze du Christianisme prevailed upon 
M. Aignan to cede to him a seat of which he had 
already felt assured. 

M. de Chateaubriand seemed particularly desirous of 
obtaining this seat, and strictly followed out the custom 
imposed upon every candidate that he himself should 
solicit the suffrages on which his election depended. 
He was elected. He knew that in his Reception dis- 
course he would have to pronounce the eulogium of 
the academician whom he succeeded. Now Chénier had 
been one of the regicides who had had a seat at the 
Institute. M. de Chateaubriand composed his discourse 
with much art. His aim was evidently not to displease 
any of his new colleagues, not excepting Napoleon. 
He eloquently praised the Emperor’s fame; he exalted 
the grandeur of republican sentiments, but he said that 
in Chénier he could only praise the man of letters, 
remembering in this connection that England for forty 
years had never boasted of Milton, who had not voted 
for the execution of Charles the First, but had pronounced 
its panegyric. 

This, like all other Reception discourses, before be- 
ing publicly delivered, had to be examined by a Com- 
mission of twelve members of the French Academy. 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 427 


The opinion of these academicians was equally divided; 
six thinking that it would produce an undesirable 
impression; the other six on the contrary, thinking of 
it favourably. My father and M. de Fontanes were 
among the latter; but one of the former six, Regnauld 
de Saint Jean d’Angely, in his too impetuous appre- 
hensions, immediately informed the Emperor of this 
incident which was in his eyes rather political than 
literary, communicating to Napoleon his own exagger- 
ated impression of the lecture, but loyally returned 
to inform my father and M. de Fontanes of this species 
of denunciation. Thus forewarned, M. de Fontanes 
prudently forbore for a week from paying his court 
to the Emperor ; but my father the next evening exposed 
himself to the storm. 

It was at St. Cloud where there had been a dramatic 
representation. The Emperor meeting my father as 
he came out of his box said to him abruptly: “ You 
must attend my evening reception, Sir!” My father 
then followed Napoleon, who, as soon as he perceived 
him in advance of the numerous assemblage of officers of 
the Court standing around him in a circle, came straight 
up to him, saying without any preamble: “ Do these 
“men of letters intend to set France on fire? I have 
“used all my efforts to appease parties, to re-establish 
“quiet, and these ideologists would re-establish anarchy ! 
“I would have you know, sir, that the resurrection of 
“the monarchy is a mystery; it is lite the ark of 
“Noah, those who attempt to touch it might be struck 
“by a thunderbolt! How dare the Academy talk of 
“regicides when I who wear a crown, and who ought 
“to hate them much more, I dine with them, and sit 
“down by the side of Cambacérés! ” 


428 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


“Your Majesty,” replied my father, “is probably 
“speaking of the Commission of the Institute; but I fail 
“to see in what it has deserved such reproaches.” 
“It deserves much greater,” retorted the Emperor; 
“and you and M. de Fontanes, as a Councillor of State 
“and Grand Master of the University respectively, you 
“both deserve that I should send you to Vincennes! ” 
My father replied: “I do not believe you capable, Sire, 
“of this injustice. It may be considered a natural thing 
“that the death of Louis Seize should be censured, with- 
“out thinking it a cause of offence to a Government 
“which has just erected expiatory altars at Saint Denis! ” 

At these words the Emperor, stamping his foot, 
exclaimed in anger: “I know what I ought to do, 
“and when and how I should do it. It is not for you 
“to give your opinion, you are not at the Council of 
«State here. And I do not ask your opinion!” 

“I do not give it,” answered my father, “I justify 
“myself!” 

“How?” resumed the Emperor, “can you justify such 
“an impertinence? ” 

“Sire,” then said my father, “M. de Chateaubriand, 
“in his discourse, compares Chénier to Milton, who 
“was a great man: and while condemning him, he 
“only treats Chenier’s republicanism and vote as the 
“error of a great soul. I see nothing unseemly in that.” 

“In short,” continued Napoleon, “instead of pronounc- 
“ing the eulogium of his predecessor, he condemned all 
“regicides, of whom there are some in the Institute. 
“Would you have dared to do the same, to their faces? ” 

“That is the very thing I did do, Sire,” exclaimed 
“my father, “in my political tableau of Europe, whilst 
“they were still in power during the Republic; and in 


OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 429 


“that I stigmatised as a crime what M. de Chateaubriand 
“only terms an error! These gentlemen bore me no 
“ill-will on that account; they are more accustomed 
“to political arguments than you think.” 

“ Sir,” retorted the Emperor, “it is one thing to read 
“a work quietly in one’s study, a discourse pronounced 
“in public is quite a different matter; it would have 
“caused a shameful scandal! ” 

“ Allowing that,” replied my father, “it would have 
“been at the most a twenty-four hours’ scandal; by 
“forbidding it, the thing will last perhaps a month!” 

“I must tell you again, Sir,” the Emperor sharply 
replied, “that I do not ask your advice. You preside 
“over the second class of the Institute; I order you 
“to inform it that I do not choose that politics should 
“be treated of in its sittings.” 

“Tn that case, Sire,” resumed my father, “I must give 
“up the eulogium of Malesherbes which has been 
“entrusted to me.” 

“I do not see any great loss in that,” answered 
Napoleon. Then he added in his most abrupt, imperious 
tones: “Go! and execute my orders, and bear in mind 
“that if the class should disobey, I will break it up 
“like a disorderly club!” 

Thus concluding, the Emperor bowed to the com- 
pany, and each retired, with downcast head, avoiding 
my father, with the exception of Duroc who came up, 
and observed that if he had held his tongue, this 
scene would have passed over in a second. 

On the next morning my father, resolved on an 
explanation did not fail to attend the /evée, where 
‘several looked coldly upon him. When they had 
taken their departure, he remained, in spite of Ram- 


430 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


buteau, then Chamberlain, and now Prefect of Paris, 
who fearing that he might ruin himself, vainly tried 
to draw him away into the adjoining room. The 
Emperor, becoming aware that my father had stayed 
on alone in his private room, asked him with some 
gentleness, what he wanted. To which my father 
replied: —* To speak to you, Sire, respecting the scene 
“of last night; respect alone prevented me from saying 
“many things which I was anxious to reply. Nothing 
“is more painful for those who are attached to you 
“than to listen to such bitter reproaches. If you will 
“not allow the maxims of your Government to be 
“contradicted, it is necessary, for us at least, that they 
“should not be enigmas. The approbation which you 
“bestowed upon what I wrote on the death of the King, 
“the severe expressions which you recently made use 
“of in the Throne Room against the regicides, and 
“finally, your expiatory ordinance for Saint-Denis, 
“render incomprehensible to me the severe manner in 
“which you spoke to me yesterday, and which has 
“sreatly affected me.” 

My father then explained to him in detail all that 
had taken place during the Commission. He repre- 
sented to him that such a discourse, even allowing it 
to be mischievous, could only harm its author, whilst, 
if disallowed, it would turn against the thing itself, the 
interdiction thus appearing to encourage an act which had 
been rightly and politically reprobated. He concluded 
by saying that were literature to be too much fettered, 
and confined to mere grammatical discussions, one of 
the most brilliant rays of the glory of his reign would 
be obscured, if not extinguished, higher literature, like 
morality, being inseparable from politics. 


Of THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I. 431 


To all this the Emperor, who had listened attentively, 
replied thus:—‘I am not angry with you. It is a 
“question of policy with me. I said yesterday what I 
“intended to be repeated. There is a good deal of 
“party spirit in all this. If any other than M. de 
“Chateaubriand had made such a discourse, I should 
“not have heeded it; and this you should have known 
“as a statesman. Besides,” he added with a laugh, 
“you must admit that men of letters are always 
“aiming at effect, and love to address themselves to 
“the passions. You must also allow that, as a man of 
“letters and a man of taste, M. de Chateaubriand has 
“been guilty of indecorum; for if you wanted to praise 
“a woman with one eye, you would speak of every 
“other feature except the one in which she is deficient!” 

My father laughed at this sally, whereupon the 
Emperor resumed: “Come now, you are no longer 
“angry, neither am I: but you must prevent the In- 
“stitute from discussing politics, for it is easier to 
“stop that kind of thing than to moderate it.” 

My father then opened the door, and as all saw the 
Emperor dismiss him in the most gracious and kindly 
manner, they immedijately gathered round him. 

Next day M. de Chateaubriand wrote to my father 
to thank him for the steadfastness with which he had 
defended him. On the following Thursday the Academy 
deliberated on the report of its Commission. The 
conclusion arrived at was that its Director should 
request M, de Chateaubriand to eliminate from his 
discourse all that related to the death of the King. 

M. de Chateaubriand was waiting in an adjoining 
room: my father went to convey this decision to him. 
The first words of the new Academician were that he 


432 MEMOIRS OF AN AIDE-DE-CAMP 


would not submit to any curtailment. These were 
also his last words, although modified in form; for my 
father having answered that he would make no use 
of this reply until repeated elsewhere, and in a calmer 
frame of mind, M. de Chateaubriand came the next 
day to see my father, and not finding him in, wrote 
at his desk: “That just now he was not well enough 
“to do any work, and would not send in another Re- 
“ception discourse to the Academy until his health 
“should allow of his paying sufficient attention to it.” 

We all know that this feigned indisposition lasted 
on to the Restoration. 

The Restoration! Meaning thereby conquest and 
invasion turned back against ourselves! Oh! how far 
we then thought ourselves from such a catastrophe! 
or rather we did not think of it at all. How was it 
possible we should believe in such a complete trans- 
formation of so great a fortune and of so many lesser 
fortunes, in such a thorough destruction of so power- 
ful an organisation, and of so many interests, habits, 
thoughts, and feelings bound up in it? Yet this year 
1811 was to be the last of the ascendant world-dominion 
of Napoleon and of our Empire. Our star henceforth 
would only emit brilliant but evanescent and delusive 
rays, like flickering lights which only shoot up with 
renewed lustre before expiring altogether, because in 
dying, they consume with themselves all by which 
they had up to that moment been sustained and sur- 
rounded! 


FINIS. 


DN DEX 


A. 


Abrewskow, General, 340. 

Afneas, 265, 

Aguesseau, M, d’ (Uncle of Phi- 
lippe de Ségur), v1, x, 408. 

Aignan, 426. 

Alexander I (Emperor of Russia), 
SS) 220; Bei Rly Zee ABO, 
25%, 252, 253,259, 259, 201, 
264, 329, 334, 341, 345, 3475 
348, 349, 351, 365, 406. 

Alexander the Great, 302, 

Amiens, Peace of, 85. 

Andlau, Mme. d’, 126. 


e 
Angely, Regnauld de Saint Jean d’, 


158, 427. 

Antonio, Don (Infant of Spain), 369. 

Apraxin, Count (Governor of Smo- 
lensk), 254, 345, 346, 348, 349, 
350, 351, 352, 354, 365. 

Apraxin, Countess, 352. 

Aray, 165. 

Artois, Comte d’, 43, 91, 92. 

Auersberg, Prince of, 222. 

Augereau, Marshal, 50, 276, 283, 
285, 287, 296. 

Augustenburg, Duchess of, 56. 

Augustus I., King of Saxony, 298, 

Augustus, Prince (Son of Prince 
Ferdinand), 305. 

Austerlitz, Battle of, 230, 235 to 
257, 263. 

Ayen, Duchess of, x1r. 


30 


B. 


Baden, Hereditary Duke of, 134. 

Bagration, Prince, 208, 225, 226, 
227, 

Barbé-Marbois, 99, 254.- 

Barrois, General, 396. 

Bassano, Duc de, 398. 

Bavaria, Elector of (Maximilian 
Joseph), 158, 210. 

Bavaria, Princess of, 211. 

Bayanne, Cardinal de, 139, 140. 

Beauharnais, Hortense de (after- 
wards Queen of Holland), 17, 
82. 

Beauharnais, Eugéne de (afterwards 
Prince of Ponte-Corvo), 211. 

Belliard, General, 404. 

Beningsen, General, 328. 

Bernadotte, Marshal (afterwards 
Charles XIV. of Sweden), 50, 
157; 158, 160; 868.5170) 177; 
LOS LOOss 27702255 2305) 28105 
246, 247, 248, 250, 254, 257, 
277, 279, 280, 295, 296, 299, 
ATO; FU eqtye 422, 4235 |. 

Bernier (Bishop of Orleans), 141. 

Bernstorf, Danish Minister, 56. 

Berry, Duc de, 91. 

Berthier, Marshal (Prince of Neu- 
chatel), 115, 116, 167, 198, 199, 
200 me Olew2O2 e222 6203. e 20. 
302, 387, 389, 398, 403. 

Bertrand, General, 188, 222. 


434 


Bessiéres, Marshal, 378, 379, 417. 

Beurnonville, General, 63, 66, 

Blucher, Field-Marshal, 292, 313. 

Bonaparte, Caroline (Mme. Murat), 
82. eters 

Bonaparte, Elisa (Mme. Bacciochi), 
82. 

Bonaparte, Jérome (King of West- 
phalia), 274. 

Bonaparte, Joseph (King of Naples), 
MO, WiGa Cy Pay O73 

Bonaparte, Mme (afterwards Em- 
press Josephine), 43, 63, 82, 115, 
TL, Leen t34; 150,1202, 103, 
175, 299. 

Bonaparte, Louis (King of Holland), 
a, oq ALi. 

Bonaparte, Prince Lucien, 74. 

Bourbon, Duchess of (Mother of 
the Duc d’Enghien), 108. 

Bourbons, the, 95, 100, IOI, 105, 
107, 369. 

Bourck, Colonel, 290, 309. 

Bruix, Admiral, 131. 

Brune, Marshal, 38, 40, 41, 50, 76. 

Brunswick, Duke of, 54, 274, 
202-203. 

Buxwoden, General, 221, 227. 


C. 


Cadoudal, Georges, 90, 91, 92, 94, 
93, 98, 99, 101, 108, 113, 119, 
125, 135. 

Cesar, 137, 311. 

Calder, Sir R. (English Admiral), 
TAG), Aig AGI, 

Cambacérés (Second Consul), 102, 
127, 411, 427. 

Campan, Mme., 85. 

Caprara, Cardinal, 141. 

Carnot, General (Minister of War), 
LOsa 2. 

Castanos, General, 387. 

Catharine II. (Empress of Russia), 
IM, 52, 345, 347, 355+ 

Cato, 124. 

Caulaincourt, General, 45, 67, 93, 
LOZ) LOO; Ose 2 Om z enh a2. 


169, 189, 239, 253, 303. 


INDEX 


Cavaignac, Colonel, 34. 

Chamberlhiac, General, 271. 

Charlemagne, 132, 134, 135, 136. 

Charles, Archduke, 216, 224, 227, 
oe 2508 

Charles I. (King of England), 426. 

Charles IV. (King of Spain), 68, 


79, 74- 

Charles V. (Emperor of Germany), 
260. 

Charles VIII. (King of France), 
XVI. 

Charles XII. (King of Sweden),342. 

Charlot, Major, 102, 103, 104, 
TOO OG. 

Charlotte, Queen (Wife of George 
Ii) o1633 

Chateaubriand, de, 425, 426, 428, 
429, 431, 432. 

Chénier, Marie Joseph de, 425, 
426, 428. 

Chouans, 90, 92. 

Christian VII. (King of Denmark), 
56, 57, 58. 

Cicero, 268. 

Claparéde, General, 235. 

Clarck, General (Minister of War), 
All, 412, 413, 414, 415, 416, 
A417, 418, 419. 

Clermont-Tonnerre, 271, 272. 

Cobentzel, J. Philipp, 132. 

Cobentzel, Louis, Comte de, 132. 

Code Napoléon, the, xv, 88. 

Colbert, Marshal, 85, 284. 

Concordat, the, 49, 65, 67. 

Condé, Prince de, 91, 211. 

Cornwallis, Admiral Lord, 148. 

Corneille, 240. 


D. 


Daguerre, 29. 

Danonville, 94, 95. 

Danton, VII. 

Daru, Count, 152, 153, 154. 

Daumesnil, General, 237. 

Davout, Marshal. (Duke of Auer- 
stedt), 40, 168, 176, 177, 195, 
196, 208, 209, 226, 230, 246, 
252, 255, 259, 264, 277, 279, 


ND ex 


280, 290, 292, 293, 294, 295, 
296, 297, 298, 302, 306, 307, 
309, 310, 311, 314, 316, 317, 
371. 

Decrés (Minister), 132, 145, 154. 

Delmas, General, 65. 

Deschamps, Major, 362, 366, 367. 

Dimbowski, Colonel, 46, 

Dodde, Marshal, 222. 

Doguereau, 254. 

Dolgorouki, Prince, 232, 233. 

Drake, Francis (English Minister 
in Bavaria), 92, 100. 

Dumas, General, 5, 9, 10, 11, 22, 
Die, Byile Bis All, siyiy Ul a5 F/O) 

Dumouriez, General, 88, 101, 104, 
105,, 212: 

Dupont, General, 177, 178, 180, 
Oe ZOL ww elO se 220: 

Duroc, Grand-Marshal, 58, 59, 60, 
(it, leh WFi5 Glee ln los OR, Wit, 
1125) 122) 1405, 109,91 74.. 200, 
Deis BRN, ASH, AB, MBS, BOL 
307, 308, 398, 404, 418, 419, 
429. 

Durosnel, General, 282, 284, 285. 

Dziewanowski, Captain, 389, 393. 


tr. 


Elchingen, Battle of, 181, 182, 183. 

Elizabeth, Mamame, 109. 

Enghien, Duc d’, 91, 100, 101, 
LOZ, 1025) 103 TOS). LOO, e112; 
AS aS i ivehy ease 

Exelmans, «General, 175, 233, 319, 
320. 


F, 


Fabvier, 219. 

Ferdinand, Archduke, 161, 165, 
TOV LOO, 102, TOA, 10S" 20. 
202. 203,204, - 230,022 1.8 256: 
2735205 

Ferdinand IV. (King of Naples), 


57: 

Ferdinand VII. (King of Spain), 
368, 373, 376, 377. 

Fesch, Cardinal, 141, 142. 


435 


Finisterre, Battle of, 151. 

Fleury (Actor), 83. 

Fontanes, de, 116, 406, 427, 428. 

Fouché (afterwards Duke of Otran- 
to), 94, 102, 126, 410, 411, 
412, 413, 414, 415, 416, 417, 
419, 424. 

Fouquier-Tinville, X11. 

Francis I. (Emperor of Austria). 
[Francis II. of Germany], 206, 
Pi} Pit, AAA Dien, Aoi, BO 

Francis I. (King of France), 260. 

Francisco, Don (Infant of Spain), 
370. 

Frederick (Prince Royal of Den- 
mark), 56, 57, 58. 

Frederick the Great, 274, 301, 302, 
AO, BBs Bria. 

Frederick Augustus III., Elector of 
Saxony, 53. 

Frederick William II., (King of 
Prussia); 53,1154: 

Frederick William III., (King of 
Prussia), 85, 86, 149, 210, 216, 
217, 225, 273, 274, 275, 276, 
278, 279, 282, 289, 290, 292, 
293, 294, 295, 299, 305, 300, 
334- 

Friant, General, 293, 294. 

Fririon, 102. 


G. 
Gaéta, Siege of, 265, 267 to 272, 
273. 
Galitzin, Prince, (Governor of 


Jaroslaf), 355, 356. 
Galitzin, Princess, 355, 356. 


Gantheaume, Admiral, 146, 154. 
Gardanne, General, 265, 268. 
Gazan, General, 218, 219. 
George III., (King of England), 


Sa LOOs LAAe 
Girardin, Colonel Louis de, 412, 


Laas, 

Girondins, the, Ix. 

Giulai, General, 199, 210, 211, 
Doty alee 


Godoi, Prince de la Paix, 68, 70, 
71, 72, 735 74) 75, 369. 


436 INDEX 


Goethe, 289. 

Gortchakoff, Prince, -365. 

Gravina, Admiral, 154. 

Grenier, General, 66. 

Grouchy, Marshal, 45. 

Grunstein, General, 103, 105. 
Gudin, 223, 292, 293, 294. 
Gustavus Adolphus, (Gustavus IV., 
- King of Sweden), 57, 302. 
Guttenburg, 134. 


H. 


Hatzfeldt, Prince of, 303, 306, 308. 
Hatzfeldt, Princess of, 307, 308. 
Haugwitz, Count d’ (Prussian Mi- 
_nister), 231. 

Hautencourt, d’,109, I10, 112, 122. 

Hautpoul, General d’, 24, 28, 45. 

Henn Vi, 105. 

Herennius, 268. 

Hesse, Prince Louis of, 226, 267, 
268, 269, 271. 

Hesse-Cassel, Princess of (Wife of 
Elector William II.), 311. 

Hilliers, General Baraguey d’, 31, 
45, 177, 178, 230. 

Hohenlinden, Battle of, 25, 27, 
42, 98. 

Hohenlohe, Prince Frederick Louis 
On Byer Ooi, 232, Bie, ata 
295, 313. 

Hohenzollern, Field-Marshal von, 
ZO 

Hulin, General, 109, 110, 112, 113, 


415, 420. 
Humboldt, Baron von, 87, 312. 


I, 
Iphigenia, 241. 


J. 


Jacobins, the, 120, 137, 414, 420, 
422, 423. 

Jellachich, General, 201, 204. 

Jena, Battle of, 277 to 288. 

John, Archduke, 176, 204. 

Jourdan, Marshal, 206, 423. 


Junot, General, 239, 240, 242, 253. 
K. 


Kaminski, Field-Marshal, 328, 337, 
338. 

‘Kellerman, Marshal, 208, 296: 

Kienmayer, 163, 165, 204. 

Klein, General, 174. 

Klénau, 199, 204. 

Korjietulski, Major, 388, 390, 393. 

Krazinski, 389, 393. 

Kutusow, Marshal, 208, 216, 217, 
21S) 20,22 225,02 20s 
APA), HET, 


L. 


Labarbée, Colonel de, 10, 13, 26, 
28. 

La Boissiére, General, 33. 

Lacrosse, Admiral, 151. 

Lacuée, General, 421. 

La Fayette, General de, XVI. 

Lagrange, Colonel de, 159, 394. 

Lajolois, General, 92, 95. 

Lalande, 139. 

Lallemande, General, 148, 155. 

Lannes, Marshal, 49, 50, 162, 177, 
178, 179, 185, 186, 187, 188, 
202, 205,)220) 022 e222 ear 
2215, 230,) 240502474" 25052708 
277) 27.5 ZOO 2035 e2OAGEZOSe 
250, 2S 7 290, 320 soui 

Larrey, (Surgeon), 398. 

Latouche-Tréville (A@miral), 132. 

Wa our, de 1935) 1o4e 

Laudon, General, 38, 39, 183. 

Lauriston, Marshal de, 147. 

Lavalette, Count, 126. 

Lebrun, Colonel, 239, 253, 254. 

Lebrun, (Third Consul), 102. 

Lecourbe, General, 66. 

Lefebvre, Marshal, 291, 296. 

Le Grand, (Valet), 400. 

Lejeune, Major, 387. 

Lemarois, Colonel, 217, 239, 253. 

Lenas, 268. 

Letort, General Count, 288. 

Levesque (Historian), 347. 


ai 


INDEX 


Lichtenstein, Prince de, 167, £99, 
204, 210, 211, 261. 

Lille, Mayor of, 157. 

Louis XV., 66, 403. 

lores) NALS ae NAME bee Gear 
OuelOos LOO.) 2557) 4.20,0430; 
‘431. 

Louis Philippe, (King of the 
French), 87. 

Louis of Prussia, Prince, 275. 

Louisa, (Queen of Prussia), 86, 
274, 289, 290, 304. 

VOzier, General Bouvet de, 95. 

Lucchesini, Marquis de, 274. 

Lunéville, Peace of, 48, 51. 


M. 


Macdonald, Marshal, 21, 22, 24, 
25, 29, 30, 31, 34) 35, 37> 38, 
39) 41, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 50, 
52; 53 54) 55, 59 61, 62, 65, 
66, 76. 

Machiavelli, 72. 

Mack, Marshal, 161, 162, 163, 
164, 165, 166, 167, 169, 176, 
177, 178, 184; 192, 193,: 194, 
195, 196, 197, 199, 200, 201, 
202, 204, 206, 221, 267. 

Macon, General, 214, 239, 253. 

Magon, Rear-admiral, 147. 

Malebranche, 403. 

Malesherbes, Xt, 429. 

Marbot (Commandant of Paris), 
422. 

Marengo, Battle of, 12, 161, 176, 
214. 

Maria Amelia, Electress of Saxony, 


By 

Maria Louisa (Queen of Spain, 
Wife of Charles IV.), 70. 

Marie Antoinette, II, IV, V, XVI, 
TOO} e 2 1- 

Marmont, Marshal, 177, 180, 204, 
22222 Anne 2 Om 2e Oe 

Masséna, Marshal, 42, 266, 270, 
272, 296. 

Mélas, General de, 161, 176. 

Michaud (Actor), 83. 

Miloradowitch, 208. 


437 


Milton, 426, 428. 

Molé (Actor), 83. 

Mollendorf, Field-Marshal, 292,294. 

Moncey, Marshal, 38, 39, 40, 51. 

Montagnards, the, 137, 138, 140. 

Montbrun, General, 389, 391, 399. 

Morand, General, 293, 294. 

Moreau, General, 21, 22, 28, 29, 
42, 44, 45, 49, 50, 65, 66, 92, 
95, 96, 97, 98, 124, 125, 165, 
209. 

Mortier, Marshal, 169, 216, 217, 
ZUG; 20Qs 220.225 e228 Os 

Moustaphine, Prince, 352, 353, 355; 
358. 

Mouton, Marshal (Count de Lobau). 
128, 159, 184, 239, 243, 253. 

Miller, Jean de,(Historian), 3 12,313. 

Murat, Joachim (Grand Duke of 
Berg, King of Naples), 94, 109, 
HIOls Tits L105, LO2.—e tos oA. 
160; 171; 172508775 178s) B79; 
TOOsm ZONE 202. 208.02 E52 Ii75 
YAO Din BPE, Wel, HAS, PAD 
2205028050239) 2005 24250. 
258, 277, 287, 288, 289, 299, 
313, 368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 
374- 


N. 


Nansouty, General, 202. 

Napoleon Bonaparte (First Con- 
sul, afterwards Emperor), Xv, 
Qty 25 95 Op alin Ua Moy AB. 
41, 42, 45, 47, 49, 50, 51; 52, 
58, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 60, 
67, 68, 69, 70, 74, 75, 79, 77; 
78, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 88, 89, 
90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 
98, 99, 100, IOI, 106, 107, 110, 
Tei ein Seon tie bos 
iG! MAO, TA, aA ye eG. 
12 Oe 7ee loo 20. 12O. tain 
132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 
138, 139, 141, 142, 143, 144, 
145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 
151, 152, 153, 154, 156, 158, 
TG Os LOOs TOT 1625 eLO25. TOA) 
"166; 167, 568, 060) 170; 171; 


438 


173, 174, 175, 176, 177; 
LOMO OM NOL OZ. Os, 
TOG. L505 1570150, 0039, 
193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 
1HOsP2OOn 20am ZO2 Z02" 
205, 206, 208, 209, 210, 
Dia, Mieke Aid, ilo, PAU, 
QOD DP PS BAS) ABC). 
231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 
239, 240, 242, 243, 244, 
246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 
252, 253, 254, 255, 2575 
25 Onn 2002 Oleez02.m202, 
273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 
279, 280, 282, 283, 284, 
286, 287, 289, 290, 291, 
294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 
300, 302, 303, 304, 395, 
307, 308, 309, 310, 311, 
313, 314, 315, 317, 319, 
328, 329, 331, 332, 341; 
347, 348, 349, 351, 307, 
370, 371, 372, 374, 378, 
380, 381, 382, 385, 386, 
389, 390, 391, 394, 396, 
399, 403, 404, 405, 406, 
411, 412, 413, 414, 415, 
416, 417, 418, 419, 425, 426, 
427, 428, 429, 430, 431, 432. 
Nelson, Lord, 52, 132, 146,148,155. 
Ney, Marshal, 159, 160, 163, 164, 
TOSS 177s LO, 017.9) LOO, bok, 
183, 185, 186, 187, 188, 192, 
ROVn 200, 820350204502 O/ Mey 
282, 284, 285, 287, 296, 299, 
387. 
Niegolewski, 389, 393. 
Noah, 427. 
Nybourg, 55. 


172, 
178, 
184, 
192, 
198, 
204, 
211, 
220, 
230, 
237, 
245, 
Zbl 
258, 
265, 
278, 
285, 
292, 
299, 
306, 
312, 
327, 
344, 
369, 
3795 
388, 
398, 
409, 


O. 


(Edipus, 241. 

Ordener, General, 102, 106, 109, 
115, 253. 

Ostermann-Tolstoi, Count, 317, 
320, 324, 326, 327, 328, 340. 

Oudinot, Marshal, 202, 215, 225, 
22 2B Os 

Ouvarof, 329. 


INDEX 


Pp. 


Paul I. (Emperor of Russia), 52, 
57, 349- 

Petchskin, Major, 345, 346. 

Pfersdorf, 103, 104. 

Pheedra, 241. 

Philip Augustus, 240. 

Philippe VI. (King of France), 144. 

Pichegru, General, 88, 90, 92, 95, 
96, 97, 98, 99, 110, 124, 125, 
135. 

Piré, General, 16, 389, 391, 399. 

Pitt, William, 88, 132, 149, 150. 

JS AVES Ae 

Pins “Vils- 127%, e035) a Ovetayg 
138, 139, 0040,e 0A Laz. 

Plutarch, XVI. 

Polignac, Armand de, 126. 

Polignac, M. de, 90. 

Polignacs, the, 98, 118. 

Popilius, 268. 

Prometheus, 403. 

Pully, General, 45. 


Q. 
Querelle (Conspirator), 94. 
13% 


Racine, 241. 
Rambuteau, Comte de, 429, 430. 


Rapp, General, 143, 169, 189, 
239, 252, 253, 258, 289, 319, 
320. 


Ravignan, Mme. de, 374. 

Réal (Councillor of State), 94, 101, 
TI5, 116, 117,118, 9019. 

Régnier (afterwards Duke of Massa), 
97, 98, 102. 

Reich, Baroness de, 106. 

Reign of Terror, vu, XIV, 38, 56. 

Reille, Marshal, 148. 

Revolution, the French, m1, 3, 26, 
56, 63, 109, 124. 

Richard Coeur de Lion, 220. 

Riviére, M. de, 90, 98, 118. 

Robespierre, 56, 420, 421, 422,424. 

Rochambeau, General, 45. 


INDEX 


Roederer, Comte de, 76. 

Rohan, Princesse de, 105, 106, 
108; 112. 

Rossilly, Admiral, 155. 

Rowiczki, Lieutenant, 389, 393. 

Rrzyzanowski, Lieutenant, 393. 

Ruchel, General, 278, 282, 283, 
Mois Aeliie 

Rudowski, 389, 392, 393. 

Rumbolt, Sir George, 135. 

Rustan (the Mameluke), 380. 


Ss. 


Sachetti, Marquis, 140. 

St. Cyr, Marshal, 50, 69, 70, 72, 73, 
74, 371. 

Saint Hilaire, General, 170, 171 
Ieee Ae DAO WE 25 Tole2 Sil 

Saint-Juan, Brigadier-General, 388, 
397, 398. 

Savary, General, 94, 100, I10, 
116, 117, 231, 232, 233, 253, 
262, 264, 380, 394. 

Saxe-Weimar, Grand Duke of, 288. 

Saxe-Weimar, Grand Duchess of, 
289. 

Schée, 108. 

Schmettau, General, 289, 292, 293, 

Schmide, Lieutenant, 105. 

Schmidt, Colonel, 219. 

Schulemberg, Comte de, 308. 

Sebastiani, General, 221, 222, 227. 

Ségur, Count de (Father of Phi- 
lippe), Recollections of, m1 to 
XVI, mentioned, 5, 6, 46, 52, 
53, 61, 65, 76, 78, 79, 80, 113, 
AT Ose 205 L200 20, e127. 
136, 137, 138, 158, 332, 341, 
345, 346, 348, 350, 365, 403, 
404, 406, 425, 427, 428, 429, 
439, 431, 432. 

Ségur, Mme. de (Wife of Philippe), 
332. 

Ségur, Marshal de (Grandfather of 
Philippe), XX. 7, 59,06, 67, 
TOG. OV 

Ségur, Vicomte de (Uncle of Phi- 
lippe, 3. 

Seneca, 124. 


439 


Serrurier, Marshal, 413, 415. 
Smith, Admiral Sir Sidney, 143. 
Smith, Spencer, 100. 

Soult, Marshal, 129, 143, 169, 
Wifa elSOn LOZ 204, 2035 (217, 
220502255 229,8 230.8232, 240, 
247, 249, 251, 252, 255, 276, 
280, 281, 378, 379. 

Staél, Mme. de, 12. 

Suchet, Marshal, 188, 225, 276, 
2802 On 2 Ome aif Le 

Swetchine, Colonel, 337, 338, 339, 
340. 


T. 


Tacitus, XVI. 

Talleyrand, 60, 69, 102, 232, 410. 

Mallient)n le... 422: 

Taylor, 100. 

Thiard, General, 184, 211, 212, 
217, 239, 253, 258. 

Thumery, General Marquis de, 101, 
105. 

Trafalgar, Battle of, 155, 231. 

Truguet, Admiral, 128. 

Turenne, Count de, 395. 


ih 
Ulm, Siege of, 185, 188 to 206. 


Vv. 


VV: , General, 157. 

Vallongue, General, 270. 

Vandamme, General, 36, 169, 249, 
2 25/2, 250 25 Os 

Vaux, General, 36. 

Vedel, Colonel, 188. 

Vendeans, the, 16. 

Verdiére (Son of the General), 3. 

Vergniaud, Vv, IX. 

Verhuel, Admiral, 143. 

Verneck, General, 166, 168, 201, 
203. 

Victor, Marshal, 385, 386, 387, 388. 

Vidocq, XIV. 

Villeneuve, Admiral, 132, 144, 145, 





‘440 
146, 147, 148, 149, 151, 152, 
154, 155. 


Vintimilles, the, XII, 


W. 


Walther, General, 390, 399. 
Waterloo, XVI, 170, 174. 


William, Prince (of Prussia), 293. 


Windischgraetz, Prince of, 186. 
Wintzigerode, Baron de, 220, 


INDEX 


Wright, Captain, 124. 

Wurtemburg, Elector of (afterwards 
King), 159, 160, 162, 163, 274. 

Wurtemburg, Princess Catherine of, 


274. 
Wurtemburg, Electress of, 163. 
WY; 


Yvan (Surgeon), 239, 244, 257, 
394, 395, 396, 398, 399, 400. 


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the narrative is written with a simplicity and sincerity which disarm criticism.””—Vew 
York Herald, 


EMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMUSAT. 
1802-1808. Edited by her Grandson, PAUL DE ReEmusaAT, 


Senator. 3 volumes, crown 8vo. Half bound, $2.25. 


“‘ Notwithstanding the enormous library of works relating to Napoleon, we know 
of none which cover precisely the ground of these Memoirs. Madame de Rémusat 
was not only lady-in-waiting to Josephine during the eventful years 1802-1808, but 
was her intimate friend and trusted confidante. Thus we get a view of the daily life 
of Bonaparte and his wife, and the terms on which they lived, not elsewhere to be 
found.” —J. Y. Mail. 


“‘ These Memoirs are not only a repository of anecdotes and of portraits sketched 
from life by a keen-eyed, quick-witted woman; some of the author’s reflections on social 
and political questions are remarkable for weight and penetration. ’—New York Sun. 


SHLECTION. FROM, THLE CEEL ILLS MOTs 
MADAME DE REMUSAT. 1804-1814. Edited by her 


Grandson, PAUL DE Ré#MuSAT, Senator. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25. 


“‘ These letters have the character of intimate correspondence, and though they do 
not avoid public events, are not devoted to them. ‘They depict the social aspect of the 
times, and form an excellent background against which to review the public events 
which form the principal subject of the previous Memoirs by the same author.”’—7he 
Independent, > 


‘A most attractive volume. The letters will be read by those who have perused the 
Memoirs with as much pleasure as by those who in them make the writer's acquaintance 
for the first time.” —/V. Y. Herald. 


EMOIRS OF NAPOLEON, his Court and Family. 


By the Duchess D’ABRANTES. In 2 volumes, 12mo. Cloth, 
$3.00. 


The interest excited in the first Napoleon and his court by the ‘Memoirs of 
Madame de Rémusat,”’ induced the publishers to issue the famous ‘‘ Memoirs of the 
Duchess d’Abrantes,” which had previously appeared in a costly octavo edition, in a 
much cheaper form, and ina style to correspond with the De Rémusat. This work 
presents a much more favorable portrait of the great Corsican than that limned by 
Madame de Rémusat, and supplies many valuable and interesting details respecting 
the court and family of Napoleon which are found in no other work, 





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OUISA MUHLBACH’S HISTORICAL 
NOVELS. New edition, 18 vols. Illustrated. t2mo. Cloth, 
per volume, $1.00. Set, in box, $18.00. 


In offering to the public our new and illustrated 12mo edition of 
Louisa Miihlbach’s celebrated historical romances we wish to call 
attention to the continued and increasing popularity of these books for 
over thirty years. These romances are as well known in England 
and America as in the author’s native country, Germany, and it has 
been the unanimous verdict that no other romances reproduce so 
vividly the spirit and social life of the times which are described. In 
the vividness of style, abundance of dramatic incidents, and the dis- 
tinctness of the characters portrayed, these books offer exceptional 
entertainment, while at the same time they familiarize the reader with 
the events and personages of great historical epochs. 


The titles are as follows: 


Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia. 

The Empress Josephine. 

Napoleon and Blucher. 

Queen Hortense. 

Marie Antoinette and her Son. 

Prince Eugene and his Times. 

The Daughter of an Empress. 

Joseph II and his Court. 

Frederick the Great and his Court. 

Frederick the Great and his Family. 

Berlin and Sans-Souci. 

Goethe and Schiller. 

The Merchant of Berlin, and Maria Theresa and 
her Fireman. 

Louisa of Prussia and her Times. 

Old Fritz and the New Era. 

Andreas Hofer. 

Mohammed Ali and his House. 

Henry VIII and Catherine Parr. 


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It is believed that this standard edition of ‘‘ Paul and Virginia’’ with Leloir’s charm- 
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classics in which D, Appleton & Co. have published ‘“‘ The Story of Colette,” ‘An 
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HE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION. (EcyPrT anp 

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jes ULAR ASTRONOMY: A General Description 

of the Heavens. By CAMILLE FLAMMARION. Translated from 
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structive to readers of all kinds as the Great Commanders Series, which is edited by 
General James Grant Wilson.”—New York Mail and Express. 


REAT COMMANDERS. A Series of Brief 


Biographies of Illustrious Americans. Edited by General 
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This series forms one of the most notable collections of books that has 
been published for many years. The success it has met with since the first 
volume was issued, and the widespread attention it has attracted, indicate that 
it has satisfactorily fulfilled its purpose, viz., to provide in a popular form and 
moderate compass the records of the lives of men who have been conspicu- 
ously eminent in the great conflicts that established American independence 
and maintained our national integrity and unity. Each biography has been 
written by an author especially well qualified for the task, and the result is 
not only a series of fascinating stories of the lives and deeds of great men, 
but a rich mine of valuable information for the student of American history 
and biography. 

The volumes of this series thus far issued, all of which have received the 
highest commendation from authoritative journals, are: 


ADMIRAL FARRAGUT. By Captain A. T. Manan, U.S. N. 
GENERAL TAYLOR. By General O. O. Howarp, U.S. A. 
GENERAL JACKSON. By James ParTon. 
GENERAL GREENE. By Captain FRANcIs V. GREENE, U.S.A. 
GENERAL J. E. JOHNSTON. By Robert M. HuGueEs, of Va. 
GENERAL THOMAS. By Henry Coppse, LL.D. 
GENERAL SCOTT. By General Marcus J. WRIGHT. 
GENERAL WASHINGTON. By Gen. BRADLEY T. JOHNSON. 
GENERAL LEE. By General FitzHucH LEE. 
GENERAL HANCOCK. By General FRANcIs A. WALKER. 
GENERAL SHERIDAN. By General HENRY E. DAVIEs. 

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SERIES. 

The following are in press or in preparation : 
General Sherman. By General MANNING F. FORCE. 
General Grant. By General JAMES GRANT WILSON. 
Admiral Porter. By James F. Souey, late Assistant Sec’y of Navy. 
General McClellan. By General ALEXANDER S. WEBB. 
General Meade. By RICHARD MEADE BACHE. 


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TSHOR VOT FTE P HOP LE 
ORE NLL Sie Tae Se 
from the Revolution to the Civil 
War. By JoHN BacH McMaster. 
To be completed in six volumes. 
Vols. I, II, III, and IV now ready. 
8vo. Cloth, gilt top, $2.50 each. 


*¢. . . Prof. McMaster has told us what no other 
historians have told. . . . The skill, the animation, the 
brightness, the force, and the charm with which he ar- 
rays the facts before us are such that we can hardly 
conceive of more interesting reading for an American 
citizen who cares to know the nature of those causes 
which have made not only him but his environment 
and the opportunities life has given him what they are.” 


JOHN BACH McMasTER. —Y. F. zmes. 





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to the opening scenes of the second war with Great Britain—say a period of ten years. 
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tinguished the previous volumes.” —Columzbus State Fournal. 


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to our own time. His style is clear, simple, and idiomatic, and there is just enough 
of the critical spirit in the narrative to guide the reader.” —Soston Herald. 


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sober facts, the spice of personalities and incidents, which relieves every page from 
dullness.” — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 


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evidences of research in quarters not before discovered by the historian.” —Chicago 
Tribune. 


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ture.”—New York Evening Post. 


“His style is vigorous and his treatment candid and impartial.”—Mew York 
Tribune. 


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(OE se TION. By Professor Max Norpau. 
Translated from the second edition of the German work. 8vo. 
Cloth, $3.50. 


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the time by a man of great intellectual power, immense range of knowledge, and the 
possessor of a lucid style rare among German writers, and becoming rarer everywhere, 
owing to the very influences which Nordau attacks with such unsparing energy, such 
eager hatred.””—London Chronicle. 


“The wit and learning, the literary skill and the scientific method, the righteous in- 
dignation, and the ungoverned prejudice displayed in Herr Max Nordau’s treatise on 
‘Degeneration’ attracted to it, on its first appearance in Germany, an attention that 
was partly admiring and partly astonished.’’—London Standard. 


“Let us say at once that the English-reading public should be grateful for an 
English rendering of Max Nordau’s polemic. It will provide society with a subject 
that may last as long as the present Government. .. . We read the pages without 
finding one dull, sometimes in reluctant agreement, sometimes with amused content, 
sometimes with angry indignation.’’—Loxdon Saturday Review. 


“Herr Nordau’s book fills a void, not merely in the systems of Lombroso, as he 
says, but in all existing systems of English and American criticism with which we are 
acquainted. It is not literary criticism, pure and simple, though it is not lacking in 
literary qualities of a high order, but it is something which has long been needed, for 
of literary criticism, so called, good, bad, and indifferent, there is always an abundance; 
but it is scientific criticism —the penetration to and the interpretation of the spirit 
within the letter, the apprehension of motives as well as means, and the comprehension 
of temporal effects as well as final results, its explanation, classification, and largely 
condemnation, for it is not a healthy condition which he has studied, but its absence, 
its loss ; it is degeneration. . . . He has written a great book, which every thoughtful 
lover of art and literature and every serious student of sociology and morality should 
read carefully and ponder slowly and wisely.” —Richard Henry Stoddard, in The 
Maitland Express 


“The book is one of more than ordinary interest. Nothing just like it has ever 
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cago Evening Post. 


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discussion.” —Chicago Tribune, 


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scientific in its method, so irresistible in its invitation to controversy, that it must get 
the worlds of arts and letters by the ears.”—Vew York Recorder. 


“The intense interest currently shown in the subject treated in the book, the original 
ideas it offers, and the imperturbable spirit of the scientific investigator which animates 
and sustains the author, will unquestionably command for it in this country the atten- 
tion it has received abroad; and it may be safely predicted that ‘ Degeneration’ 
already known here in literary circles, is destined to attain an immediate and widespread 
popularity.” —Philadelthia Telegraph. 


“This fascinating and*most suggestive book gives a picture of the zsthetic mani- 
festations of the times, drawn with rare adroitness, vigor, and command of satire, and 
it will be found to hold a place which has not been occupied.’ ’— Cincinnati Commercial- 
Gazette. 


“Certain to arouse a storm of discussion.” —Philadelphia Ledger. 


‘“The interest which ‘ Degeneration’ causes in the reader is intense,”—New York: 
Times. 





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